The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Monday reacted as President Muhammadu Buhari threatened those plotting to snatch ballot boxes during the general elections.
President Buhari had made it clear that anyone who tries to disrupt the electoral process, will be doing so “at the expense of his own life”.
Reacting, PDP said the remark was a direct call for jungle justice which was aimed at directing the attention of the public.
In a statement signed by its spokesperson, Kola Ologbondiyan, PDP accused the Buhari’s Presidency and the All Progressives Congress (APC) of plotting to trigger widespread political crisis to derail Nigeria’s democratic process by plunging “our nation into anarchy.”
PDP said, “Buhari’s threat to the lives of Nigerians, at the opening of APC’s national caucus meeting in Abuja today, is a direct call for jungle justice and attempt to divert public attention from their closed session where details of their dastardly plot to truncate our democratic process will be perfected.
“We do hope that this call by President Buhari is not camouflaged for the fake soldiers mobilized by the APC to shoot at innocent Nigerians, snatch ballot boxes and execute their rigging plans on the election day. It is indeed a license to kill, which should not come from any leader of any civilized nation.
“The underlining fact to the above is that President Buhari and APC leaders, upon getting to their voting constituencies last Saturday, realized that there is a nationwide rejection of Buhari’s re-election bid, and this has thrown them into a panic mode.
“President Buhari must, however, bear in mind that his resort to threats and scaremongering will not deter Nigerians from coming out en-masse to vote him out of office on February 23.
“We are aware that President Buhari, who had earlier boasted that nobody can ‘unseat’ him, is bent on using every dictatorial and tyrannical act to truncate the process of a free, fair and credible election.
“Intelligence available to us shows that the Buhari Presidency has directed the leadership of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to immediately reshuffle the Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) in order to deploy compromised officials to manipulate the electoral process in President Buhari’s favour, as they did with the police shortly before February 16.”
