By Ishaya Ibrahim
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Friday called on the nation’s security agencies to investigate the circumstances surrounding the presence of politicians from Niger Republic at the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential rally in Kano on Thursday.
The opposition party expressed worry that the development could pave way for the possible influx of non-Nigerians into the country to illegally participate in the 2019 elections.
Addressing a press conference at the PDP presidential campaign headquarters on Friday, National Publicity Secretary of the party, Kola Ologbondiyan, said for a country battling to curtail insurgency, the influx of “mercenaries” into the country is a red flag. .
PDP accused the president and the ruling APC of compromising the country’s territorial integrity, insisting that the action portends grave danger to national security and the sanctity of Nigeria’s electoral process.
Below is the full statement:
Kano APC Rally: PDP Demands Investigation Into Presence of Mercenaries
Gentlemen of the press, yesterday, we raised the alarm on how the
Muhammadu Buhari Presidency and the All Progressives Congress (APC)
rented and smuggled in a crowd of aliens from Niger Republic to populate
Mr. President’s campaign rally in Kano state, after they could not
mobilize Nigerians to attend.
President Buhari and the APC, in their desperation have compromised our
territorial integrity as a nation and this portends grave danger to our
national security and the sanctity of our electoral process.
For a nation contending with insurgency and banditry, the involvement of
mercenaries from neighboring countries in the APC rally must be
condemned by all and sundry. This is particularly against the backdrop
of claims by President Buhari that killer herdsmen ravaging our nation
are mercenaries who are infiltrating from the Sahel region.
Nigerians can now see the unfolding plots by agents of the APC to
use mercenaries from neighboring countries to precipitate crisis with
the aim of scuttling the 2019 general election, having realized that
they cannot win in a free, fair and credible election.
Now we understand the weight of the submission by the National Security
Adviser (NSA) Maj. Gen. Babagana Mongunu (rtd), when he stated recently
that; “unscrupulous elements are already mobilising merchants of
violence, including armed bandits and terrorists to orchestrate violence
during the elections in several states of the federation”.
Similarly, Nigerians can also decode the Minister of Information and
Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, when he stated recently that; “there is
also an international dimension to the evil plan. Some armed mercenaries
from the Niger Republic have been contracted to attack top government
functionaries, including state governors, across the North-west between
now and the elections.”
Today, Nigerians need no further evidence of those planning evil against
our nation.
Already, there are apprehensions that miscreants who came from Niger
Republic to President Buhari’s rally are being offered accommodation in
our country by the APC to unleash violence immediately it is clear that
President Buhari is losing in the February 16 presidential election.
On account of these, PDP demands an urgent and thorough investigation
into the circumstances leading to the presence of politicians and thugs
from Niger Republic at the APC presidential rally in Kano on Thursday.
The APC and the Buhari Presidency must immediately explain the roles
being played by Issa Moussa, Governor of Zinder and his counterpart from
Maradi, Zakiri Umar, both of the Niger Republic, who were sighted decked
in the attires and official logos of the APC, in our political affairs.
Our security agencies must immediately investigate and lay in the public
domain the circumstances leading to their presence, which more or less
confirms that the APC has lost all domestic credibility and has assumed
a desperate mode.
The presence of the Niger Republic Governors at President Buhari’s rally
signposts a direct assault on the credibility of the Presidential
elections. This is particularly against the backdrop of INEC’s plans to
allow Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in that country to vote in our
election, a situation that opens the way for aliens to infiltrate as
IDPs and participate in our elections.
Our apprehensions are accentuated by INEC’s recent mass creation of
additional polling units which have not been properly designated and
which may be deployed for the perpetuation of monumental electoral
fraud. We note how Kano State, in 2015, delivered 1.9 million votes to
the APC presidential candidate in circumstances devoid of transparency
and credulity.
Moreover, the promise by Governor Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano state to
deliver five million votes to President Buhari in the 2019 elections
is predicated on the unfettered opening of our international borders to
foreign political interests.
What was the true purpose of the invitation of these foreigners to the
APC rally in Kano on Thursday? What secret deals did APC leaders make
with them at the expense of our national security?
It begs the question how a Government that vilified credible
international bodies that genuinely advised on the need for a free and
fair election, as interfering in our elections, would now be spending
public resources to rent political mercenaries from neighbouring countries.
We know that APC’s jettisoning of our territorial integrity and national
security to hire crowds from Niger Republic is borne out of frustration
over the recent successes and massive turn out of supporters at PDP
rallies held in the North West.
The spontaneous and mammoth turnouts of supporters and admirers of the PDP as well as the people’s candidate, Atiku Abubakar, even in the APC’s supposed strongholds in the North West states of Kaduna, Jigawa,
Katsina, Sokoto, Zamfara, Kebbi and Kano, has no doubt, discomfited the
APC and its Presidential candidate.
The PDP holds that the 2019 general election is only for Nigerians.
There is no way our citizens will allow foreigners to participate in our
electoral process.
We therefore call on all Nigerians irrespective of creed, ethnicity and
political affiliations to rise in total condemnation of this direct
assault on our territorial integrity as a nation. Our citizens must
henceforth be at alert and get prepared to defend the sovereignty of our
nation, which President Buhari and the APC, in their desperation, are
ready to trade away.
