The Kogi State APC Governorship Campaign Council has taken a swipe at the Social Democratic Party (SDP), accusing the horse-symboled party of exposing its own atrocities against democracy.
The APC Campaign Council, in a press statement released on Tuesday, 5 December, 2023, said it has noticed the desperation with which the SDP and some ethnic jingoists are trying to paint Kogi State as unsafe.
The statement signed by the spokesman for the Campaign Council, Kingsley Fanwo, alleged that the SDP orchestrated the supposed attacks on the Secretary of the Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal, Mr. Mike David, in other to cover up the already exposed plans of filing petitions through the backdoor.
Noting that the SDP is desperate to file petition against the November 11 election outside the period allowed under the Electoral Act, the APC recalled that some patriotic lawyers, from across the three senatorial districts of the state, had on Monday, alerted the public to the clandestine plan of the SDP and its Governorship candidate to file their petition through the backdoor and backdate same in order to circumvent the provisions of the Electoral Act.
“It is not hard for the discerning to see through the concocted lies and warped strategy of the SDP, as the purpoted attack on the Tribunal Secretary was said to have occurred on the day their dubious, anti-democratic plan was exposed,” the statement said.
Raising some posers, Fanwo queried: “Why was he not attacked before the midnight of December 3, 2023, when the 21 days window closed? Why is the SDP the first to know about the purported attack? How did they know that he was working on their so called petition at the time he was allegedly attacked? Why has the SDP turned themselves to the advocate for the Secretary?”
He however alerted the public not to be misled because the people know exactly what is happening.
He therefore reiterated the call on security agencies to swing into action and look into the numerous petitions before them.
“We have called endlessly on the security agencies in the state to act on series of petitions before them against the criminalities being perpetrated by the SDP and its thugs all in the name of politics.
“They commit heinous crimes, kill innocent citizens, heighten tension in the state with hate speeches under a rejected ethnic agenda and turn around to play the victims through senseless propaganda.
“They even blatantly accuse the security agencies of committing crimes without any arrests being made.
“The inaction of the security agencies in the face of glaring atrocities being perpetrated by these desperate politicians and ethnic jingoists has further emboldened their thugs to attack the residence of the Resident Electoral Commissioner in charge of Kogi State, something that has never happened in the history of our dear state.
“And now, they and their collaborators in crime have conjured a “dead on arrival” script on the attack of the Tribunal Secretary.
“As we write, the lawyer, who led others to expose the SDP’s backdoor filing plans, in collaboration with some staff of the Tribunal, is being threatened by the SDP camp, even on public platforms, and this complaint is before the security agencies.
“When SDP threatens, they attack. That was how they threatened the Resident Electoral Commissioner and followed up their threats with a gruesome attack on his residence. Those who act within the precinct of the rule of law must be protected by the law.
“We await the reports of the security agencies on the true situation of things and once again call on our President, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to direct the Department of State Services and the Police to leave no stone unturned in apprehending the criminals terrorising the state and waging fruitless war against democracy. The Governor of the state, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, CON, laid a solid foundation in terms of security. Criminals had no hiding place in the state for over seven years. We cannot at this point sacrifice these widely acknowledged wins on the slab of politics”, the statement concluded.
