Atiku Seeking Protection For Thugs- Oshiomhole
National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress APC, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole has lashed out at the Presidential Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party PDP, Atiku Abubakar, saying his attack on the presidential directive to security operatives on tackling ballot box snatching during this weekend’s polls akins to seeking protection for thugs and setting the country on fire.
Oshiomhole spoke Tuesday night with journalists at his private office on Aso Drive, Abuja.
“There is no responsible candidate down to the House of Assembly who will find fault in any pronouncement that seeks to discourage thuggery in the coming elections. So, for a man who is aspiring to preside over a country like Nigeria to seek protection for thuggery, to seek cover for thuggery, even as he has already said he would grant amnesty to looters, I do not think Nigerians have any basis to doubt that Atiku Abubakar’s mission is to set Nigeria on fire just so that he can become president even if he will preside over a graveyard.
Only those who rely on thuggery can find fault with the President’s directive”, he said.
On the allegation by the PDP that the ruling party imported smart card readers from China to be deployed in certain parts of the country, Oshiomhole said; “We are not like stammerers who look for a fight because they cannot win an argument. Assuming, without conceding that it is true, it means Atiku is working hand in hand with the ICT unit in INEC to know the kind of card readers that are deployed to a particular location. INEC being independent as it is, I am not in a position to determine where the card readers would be deployed or where they were imported from”, he said.
In another statement, APC’s National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu said, “the leaked security report of the Peoples Democratic Party PDP plan to deploy $111milion for vote-buying across the states under the pretence of ‘logistics’ during the General Elections raises new fears ahead of the forthcoming polls”.
He said it is now clear that the PDP has no plans to win the elections through legitimate votes, but through illegally procured votes.
“Again, in the aftermath of the configured card readers recently recovered from PDP agents in some states, the PDP presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has gone to town with face-saving conspiracies that the All Progressives Congress APC has imported slow-working card readers from China which will be deployed to the South South and South East which Atiku considers his ‘stronghold’.
