PDP alleges APC behind attacks on INEC facilities

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Wednesday accused the All Progressives Congress (APC) of orchestrating the attacks on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) facilities across the country.

INEC offices in Ebonyi, Imo, Ogun, and Osun States had come under attack in the last two months with the criminals destroying Permanent Voter’s Cards (PVCs), voting cubicles, generating sets, and other materials in the affected states.

In a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, the party expressed concern that the APC presidential candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has refused to caution his party members against violence and other acts inimical to the growth of the nation’s democracy.

The PDP urged security agencies to stop the APC on its vicious plot to derail the country’s democratic process.

The statement read: “Part of the plot is the current attacks on the facilities of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in various parts of the country as witnessed in Ogun, Osun, and Imo States, where sections critical to the conduct of elections, particularly those connected to the collection of Permanent Voters Cards, were targeted and destroyed.

“Also, our party has been made aware of plans by the APC to orchestrate attacks in other states particularly Kogi and Delta; some states of the South-East as well as parts of the North with the view to subverting the electoral process in as many states as possible.

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“Intelligence available to our party indicates that the attack on INEC facilities is to prevent newly registered voters from collecting their PVCs; destroy the PVCs so that they will not be available for collection in INEC offices, and thirdly, destroy INEC equipment and cripple its capacity to conduct elections.

“In addition, the APC has introduced a very disturbing dimension of ‘purchasing’ PVCs from unsuspecting Nigerians through monetary inducement masquerading as empowerment programmes.

“In any case, our party is not surprised at the resort to violence by Tinubu and the APC; a clear acceptance of electoral defeat which apparently accounts for the APC’s presidential candidate’s decision to boycott the signing of the National Peace Accord by presidential candidates in the 2023 elections

“His body language and comments suggest the condoning of the ongoing violence in our electoral process.

“Of course, the London meeting where Tinubu directed his party members to unleash violence on Nigerians was a closed-door event that inadvertently leaked to the public. The aim of the APC was to hit our nation with violence and mislead security agencies to direct their investigation on criminal elements and social restiveness, instead of the real culprit, the APC.”

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