Being the text of a press conference addressed by the National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Alhaji Lai Mohammed, in Lagos on Wednesday, March 4th 2015
Good morning gentlemen and welcome to this press conference.
It’s just about three weeks to the start of the rescheduled 2015 general elections, and the expectations across the country and outside our borders are very high, just as the tension among Nigerians!
The eyes of the world are focused on our country, Nigeria, to organize a free, fair, credible and violence-free election that will not only deepen our democracy but will also show to the world that our leadership position in the West African sub-region and the African continent is not a fluke.
While we in the All Progressives Congress (APC), and definitely most Nigerians, also expect nothing less than very transparent elections, indications are that those at the helms have grown so desperate that they do not even want the elections to hold. And even if the elections must hold at all, they must be held on their own terms: No PVCs, No Car Readers, No Jega, and the military must be deployed to intimidate voters!
But what has not played out openly are some of the criminal and unlawful actions being secretly hatched by the PDP and the Jonathan Administration to rig the forthcoming general elections and perpetuate themselves in power.
The handwriting is clear: This Administration knows it can never win in a free, fair and credible elections because of its appalling record in office. Nigerians want change through the ballot box, and they are determined to effect that change with their PVCs.
Let me now take you through some of those evil plots being hatched to deny the people of Nigerians their right to vote for change.
1. There is a plot to transfer a humongous amount of money into the bank account of the INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, and then claim that the money came from Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the APC in order to justify the ongoing plan to sack Prof. Jega so he won’t organize the elections.
Beyond Jega, there is also a plan to credit the bank accounts of some key national institutions with huge amounts of money purportedly from our party, the APC, ostensibly to compromise those institutions.
2. There is plan to use some political parties that are satellites of the PDP to push for the postponement of the elections again. The plot is to get the parties to address a press conference to say the elections should not hold in the North-east until Sept. 2015 because of the ongoing counter-insurgency battle there. The intention is to make sure Jega’s tenure expires before the polls, so that they can appoint a malleable card-carrying member of the PDP as INEC Chair to conduct the polls.
3. There a plan to use the security agencies to intimidate key opposition leaders as well as the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and telecommunications service providers to disrupt voice and data transmission, especially in APC strongholds, on election day.
As we have said earlier, the telephones of our leaders have been bugged and their movements are being daily monitored.
Top on the list of the security agencies to be used against the opposition is the DSS, which will be used to compel all Resident Electoral Commissioners in the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory to hand over the names and telephone numbers of all INEC’s regular and ad
hoc staff who will conduct the elections, as part of the Jonathan Administration’s rigging plans.
It is no longer news that a signal has been sent to all state commands of the DSS to get the list of all INEC Returning Officers and Adhoc Staff before March 10th.
4. There is also the ongoing illegal recruitment over 500 new cadets into one of the country’s security outfits, 50% of whom are from the home state of the outfit’s top brass, in violation of the provisions of the Constitution, especially as the recruitment does not reflect the Federal Character
5. Nocturnal meetings are being held between various heads of national security agencies and the leadership of the PDP to undermine the coming elections;
6. The Presidency has retained the services of two Israelis and a Belgian who are currently holed up in the Aso Rock Villa to hack and corrupt INEC computers on election day, with the trio having already been paid 25 percent of their contract fees upfront.
7. There is an ongoing effort to compromise the card reader, which the Jonathan Administration sees as inimical to its rigging plans.
8. Huge funds are being provided for retired and serving security personnel to buy up PVCs, with the hope that they can be used once the card reader is compromised. Remember, gentlemen, that there is a case in court seeking to declare the use of the card reader in the forthcoming elections unconstitutional.
9. In the days leading up to the elections, the Jonathan Administration is planning to give the opposition the Ekiti treatment by massively arresting key opposition leaders, with a view to destabilizing their ranks, putting them away and paving the way for a free rein of their rigging agents. Towards this end, thousands of signed blank detention orders have been procured.
10. As part of the plan to implicate our leaders, illegal substances may be put into their checked-in luggage during local and international flights. That is why we are calling on our leaders to travel only with their carry-on baggage.
Let me say that the detailed plans by the desperate Jonathan Administration and the PDP are part of the massive intelligence we are receiving daily from patriotic Nigerians, within and outside the government, who are eager to see the organization of a free, fair, credible and violence-free elections that will catapult Nigeria to the league of truly democratic nations.
We have decided to share the information we are receiving with Nigerians because we believe that no power is strong enough to stop a people who are determined to effect change in the way and manner they are being governed, and that the ultimate power resides in the people.
We have no doubt that the information will fortify the local and international observers who are coming for the elections, in addition to enhancing the vigilance of the citizenry before, during and after the polls.
I thank you for listening
Alhaji Lai Mohammed
National Publicity Secretary
All Progressives Congress (APC)
Lagos, March 4th 2015
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