Buhari Encouraging Intimidation Of PDP Supporters - Wada

Governor Idris Wada  of Kogi state has accused the All Progressives Congress of trying to frustrate the opposition by mounting a well-orchestrated campaign of intimidation and harassment.

He added that this move by the APC was intended to cause jitters among the opposition in order to gain an unfair advantage in the Saturday, November 21, gubernatorial election in the state, Daily Post reports.

The governor’s displeasure was contained in a statement issued in Lokoja on Monday, November 16, by Wada’s spokesman, Phrank Shaibu, in which he accused President Muhammadu Buhari of looking the other way while his party gets involved in dirty games to undermine the opposition.

He said: “While on the campaign trail ahead of the 2015 general elections, President Buhari said all the nice things about free and fair elections and one man one vote, but few months after assuming office, he now pretends not to notice when his party engages in actions that will not make the forthcoming governorship polls in Kogi and Bayelsa free, fair and credible.”

Shaibu alleged that the APC consistently harassed and intimidated the PDP in the state all in an attempt to sway the process in the favour of the APC which now controlled the central government.

He claimed that a point of note is the statement allegedly made by the APC candidate in the state, Abubakar Audu, during a campaign in Kabba recently where he ordered APC supporters to kill any
PDP hoodlum, which has set the climate for the harassment that the PDP supporters are suffering in the state.

The PDP warned that any attempt by the APC to steal the mandate of the people will be meet with stiff resistance.

Wada’s spokesman called on Buhari to write his name in gold by allowing free and fair elections to thrive in the state.

“All the pledges about organizing free and fair elections in next Saturday’s election will amount to nothing if the ruling party continues to intimidate the opposition, if it continues to use state resources and agencies, including the army and the police, to muzzle and frustrate the opposition.

“We are documenting these anomalies and will present them to Nigerians in due course,” Shaibu concluded.

Meanwhile, the federal government has been accused of planning to use funds from the Niger Delta Development Commission to influence the forthcoming election in Bayelsa state in favour of the APC.

The allegation comes from a group called Bayelsa Votes whose coordinator, Thomas Dokubo, alleged that the national leadership of the APC feels indebted to the party’s gubernatorial candidate, Timipre Sylva, because of his financial commitments to the campaign of  Buhari.