Buhari’s Tenure Will Not Be Abridged, Says APC

National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed

  Accuses PDP of plot to disrupt road show in Ekiti
Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja


The All Progressives Congress (APC) has debunked the insinuations that its presidential candidate,  Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), will spend only one term in office if elected president, saying it is the creation of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which is seeking to play a section of the country against another.

The party also accused the PDP of allegedly working through Governors Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti  State and Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State, to cause mayhem in the South-west before, during and after the forthcoming elections to make free, fair and peaceful polls impossible, having realised that the PDP’s stock in the geo-political zone has been totally depleted, despite their massive bribery of some leaders in the region.

In a statement issued Tuesday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said APC would not abridge the right of Buhari to spend the constitutionally-guaranteed two terms as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria if elected in the March 28 poll.

‘’No conditionality whatsoever was attached to Buhari’s candidacy. He won the party primaries fair and square in a globally-acclaimed transparent manner, and he was neither a compromise nor a consensus candidate, hence there is no need for him to make a deal with anyone.

‘’We are therefore telling Nigerians to disregard the tales by moonlight which some PDP elements are yarning, in their desperation to muddle the waters ahead of the forthcoming elections and create disaffection between a section of the country and another,’’ it said.

APC said it had ignored the myth all long because it was being peddled by fringe elements in the PDP, but decided to put the records straight once and for all after those who were thought to be saner elements in the ruling party started parroting the same incredulous lies.

‘’This myth that Buhari will spend one term, after which power will return to the South-west, is along the same line as the outlandish claim that our vice-presidential candidate, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, has sworn to an oath to resign in favour of Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu once elected.

‘’The question to ask is: When will the PDP stop this campaign of calumny and character assassination against our candidates and leaders? When will they stop this one-day, one-lie nonsense?

‘’The truth is that Buhari’s candidacy has brought out the worst in the PDP leadership and supporters, including the president and his wife. Unfortunately for them, the more they campaign against our candidate, the more popular he becomes. Perhaps the PDP would have stood a better chance of winning the forthcoming polls if its state governors, in particular, have devoted as much time and energy to running their states as they have devoted to maligning Buhari,’’ the party said.

Also, the APC has accused the PDP of planning to disrupt its (APC’s) road show in Ekiti State scheduled for today using thugs decked in APC T-shirts to infiltrate the rally and instigate violence.

It therefore called on security agents to be on the alert during the road show in the state and indeed all through the South-west as the elections approach.

“Scared stiff about the success of the one-million-march in Lagos last Saturday and worried about the successful rally being repeated in Ekiti  State and elsewhere in the South-west, the PDP has perfected a devilish plan to cause mayhem during the Ekiti road show. The APC T-shirts being sewn by Mimiko will be given to their thugs, who will then be mandated to infiltrate the road show and start a fight.

‘’Beyond that, the two ‘generals’ of the PDP in the South-west, Fayose and Mimiko, have perfected a scheme to take the military and police uniforms being sewn in Ado-Ekiti to Akure, where they will be worn by thugs for the purpose of intimidating APC supporters before and during the elections.

Already, a special task force under one Soji Bello has been set up in Ondo State with the express mandate of attacking and beating up all known supporters of APC in the  state while another team has been mandated to cause mayhem  in the Hausa-dominated Sabo and Shasha areas of the Ondo State capital, Akure.

‘’Finally, the PDP ‘generals’ plan to cause their own ‘Boko Haram’ to strike in the South-west, after which some South-west-based militias will retaliate against those purportedly behind the attack, thus triggering a region-wide mayhem. These plans are the outcome of all nocturnal meetings involving these PDP ‘generals’ and some other anarchists,’’ APC said.

The party said it had decided to expose these plans to put the nation’s security agencies on the alert, as well as to alert Nigerians and the international community to the evil machinations of those who are bent on triggering massive chaos and violence ahead of the polls.

“APC is a very peaceful party. Not a single violent incident has been recorded at any of our rallies since the beginning of the current electioneering campaign. Also, despite the massive turnout of Nigerians for the one-million-man march in Lagos on Saturday, the march was violence-free.

‘’We therefore urge those who are doing everything possible to make a peaceful change impossible to realize that they are being watched closely by Nigerians and the international community, and for them to realise that there will be no hiding place for them either within or outside Nigeria if they carry out their dastardly plans. Today, the world has zero tolerance for perpetrators of mindless killings, chaos and violence,’’ it warned.