The PDP, in a statement, said it had uncovered a scheme by the APC to buy voters cards belonging to internally displaced victims of Fulani herdsmen attacks
Rose Ejembi, Makurdi
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Benue State has alleged that the All Progressives Congress (APC) is planning to rig the 2019 elections by secretly offering money to buy voters cards from Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the state.
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This is even as the APC through its state Publicity Secretary, Apeh Peterhot has fired back saying the PDP has fabricated the falsehood because it is jittery that it would be defeated round and square in the forthcoming general elections.
The PDP, in a statement signed by its state Publicity Secretary, Bemgba Iortyom, said it had uncovered a scheme by the APC to buy voters cards belonging to internally displaced victims of Fulani herdsmen attacks, some of who are presently taking refuge in camps in the state.
“Credible intelligence at our disposal indicate that APC is targeting to possibly manipulate and rig the 2019 elections in its favour through this scheme which the party launched on the day it staged a decamping ceremony inside the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) Camp at Daudu.
“To have staged a decamping ceremony inside an IDPs camp alone was a record showing of moral depravity and conscienceless desperation, yet APC went a step further down the path of infamy with their agents secretly offering monies ranging between N5,000 and N10,000 to displaced persons at the camp in exchange for their Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) while the charade of a decamping ceremony lasted.”
Iortyom further claimed that the scheme has since then continued by the opposition party in the state with their agents going about secretly to IDPs camps and as well to residences housing those victims of herdsmen attacks offering to them various sums of money in exchange for their PVCs.
“This development is not only obnoxious and nefarious but directly targets to undermine the very institution of democracy which stands as the most prized asset Nigerians have next to the corporate entity of the country.
“Moreover, this scheme amounts to wickedly rubbing salt into the injuries of Benue IDPs who are suffering today because the APC controlled federal government failed to protect them from the swords, knives and bullets of Fulani herdsmen who have for years killed, maimed and plundered our land at will and unchallenged.
“We understand that APC presently is a failed political experiment only waiting to be consigned to the graveyard of history by Nigerians, as such the party may not be able to properly appreciate the value of the democratic culture which PDP painstakingly helped to nurture, yet the party must not be allowed to dangerously rock our ship of state in its dying moments.
“We, therefore, call on the good people of Benue State to rise up and condemn in the strongest possible terms this dastardly scheme by APC, and we urge all internally displaced persons to shun the devilish offer to sell their PVCs to the same party that has been responsible for their plight” the PDP said.
The party, also called on security agencies to launch their own investigations into the matter and bring the perpetrators to book, in order to safeguard and preserve the country’s priceless institution of democracy, in the best interest of the Nigerian nation. Apeh while noting that the the allegation was false, urged the PDP to stop fabricating lies to deceive the general public.