APC alleges plot by presidency, PDP to procure court judgment stopping Buhari

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The All Progressives Congress, APC, has raised the alarm over an alleged plot by the Presidency and Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to mastermind multi-faceted campaigns in a bid to stop its presidential candidate, Muhammadu Buhari, from contesting the February 14 election.

The party also alleged that part of the plot involved scuttling the election to pave way for interim government.

The Publicity Secretary of APC, Lai Mohammed, made the allegations at a press conference in Lagos Thursday.

The party said the campaign to stop Mr. Buhari, using court cases and infiltration of the judiciary, was being pursued simultaneously with the agenda of postponing elections to allow an interim government of which the PDP would be the beneficiary.

“Suffice it to say that this stop-Buhari-at-all-cost campaign is being pursued simultaneously with the push to postpone next month elections, ostensibly because of the low level of PVC distribution but in the real sense an implementation of the stated mindset of the presidency never to hand over to Gen. Buhari, and then of course set up an interim government,” it said.

The APC stated that with only about two weeks to the general elections, “at least four cases have been filed by those who are undoubtedly fronting for the PDP and the Presidency, and all are working towards the same goal: Stop Buhari, Scuttle next month’s elections.”

It explained that since after APC national convention last year, the PDP had been mustering efforts, including forging medical certificate, to smear its presidential candidate.

The party said, “Let me give a quick background of how we got here. Since the emergence of Gen. Buhari as the presidential candidate of the APC at a well-organized and transparent National Convention of our party last month, things seem to have fallen apart for the PDP and the Presidency, and for them the centre can no longer hold. Indeed, Gen. Buhari has become the nightmare for the ruling party and the Presidency, to such an extent that their entire electioneering campaign now dwells on one and one issue only: the person of Gen. Buhari.

“First, they said things will unravel for the candidate and his party over the choice of a vice presidential candidate, but not only did this evil prediction fail, a VP candidate who has been widely acclaimed as the best choice for the party and the country, in the person of Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, emerged, further pushing the naysayers into sheer trepidation.

“Next, they engaged in scandal mongering, that our candidate is not qualified to run because he did not have the pre-requisite qualification. In fact, they so much believed their own lies that they swore to have found a fool-proof way to stop Gen. Buhari. Then their house of lies collapsed when it was proven beyond doubt that our candidate sat for and passed his Cambridge Examination.”

The APC further alleged that not knowing what to do next, the ruling party procured a forged medical certificate from the ‘Ahmadu Bello University Hospital claiming that Mr. Buhari was suffering from prostrate cancer.

It added that the “PDP and the Presidency had barely unveiled the 419” ‘certificate before it was disowned by the authentic Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital.

“Not knowing what next to do, they turned their campaign rallies to a Buhari-bashing event, pushing issues to the back burner. Those who lacked even a scintilla of integrity, those who an embodiment of incompetence and cluelessness, and those who need reformation in the aftermath of their self-inflicted, indulgence-induced phrenic impairment all went into a frenzy in an attempt to demonize a man whose integrity, decency and honesty are legendary,,” the opposition party said.

“They produced and aired documentaries that are based, 99%, on lies and twisted facts. But this too boomeranged. The more they pound him, the higher Gen. Buhari soars.

“Now they have moved to the last frontier in their stop-Buhari-at-all-cost campaign: Using the courts. After manipulating some elements of the judiciary workers to embark on strike to stop the courts from hearing cases that could be detrimental to their presidential candidate, the same puppeteers again manipulated the elements to end the strike, so they can kick-start their last strategy. As I said earlier, at least four cases have been filed, all aimed at one and one objective only: Stop Gen. Buhari,” the party explained.

Also in a statement on Thursday, the All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Organisation, APCPCO, said it had it on god authority that the kernel of the plan to scuttle the elections “ is to use the subterfuge of the frivolous litigation by some people to get a court pronouncement (from one of the Presidency’s pliable Judges) to the effect that General Muhammadu Buhari – the APC presidential candidate – lied under oath in saying that the military had his certificate, whereas, the military had denied being in possession of the certificate.”

The statement signed by the Director of Media and Publicity of the campaign, Garba Shehu, said any counter arguments by the APC’s candidate’s counsel would not matter because the particular Federal High Judge has been prepared to do a dirty hatchet job.

The APC said “it is their calculation that this wicked pronouncement of disqualification of the APC candidate shall precipitate spontaneous violent protests across the country.”

The organization said the scenario would then make President Goodluck Jonathan, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate in the election, to declare a six-month state of emergency across the land.

It also disclosed that the three-week long strike action by the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN) was embarked upon on the prodding of the PDP-led Federal government as a way to stymie any higher court upturning of the lower court pronouncement which ruled on President Jonathan’s eligibility to contest the February 14 election.

Similarly, the organization said the same trade union had been procured to open the court to allow for this court pronouncement in disqualifying General Buhari from contesting the election.

“We are aware of the intense desperation of the PDP-led Federal government of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan in desiring to retain political power at all costs despite his and his party’s overwhelming rejection by the Nigerian people, ahead of the 2015 general election,” the statement said.

“We have brought this wicked plot of the PDP-led government to the attention of Nigerians, from whom any government derives its legitimacy. Nigeria cannot be thrown into chaos because of the selfish and callous desire of a tiny cabal to goad the Nigerian people into its destructive path. The governance of the Nigerian people by any person or group of persons must have the assent of the Nigerian people.”

The APC Campaign called on the International community to prevail on this obviously agitated presidency not to plunge the Nigerian State into avoidable intractable crisis.