The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Taraba State has accused the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) of violence and spreading of falsehood ahead of Saturday’s governorship elections in the state.
The PDP, speaking during a press conference in Jalingo recently through its spokesman, Andetarang Irammae, blamed the APC for a recent attack on the convoy of one of its members.
“A convoy of our House of Assembly candidate came under severe attack enroute Bibinu for their campaign by APC thugs. That again is something that is not known in the cycle of PDP. We believe in decent and clean politics. We don’t engage in lies and thuggery. It is just the grace of God that Capt. Douglas Ndatse is alive. Unprovoked, we were attacked and that is APC for you.
“We have filed a formal complaint to the appropriate security apparatus,” Irammae stated.
The party spokesman also made reference to a recent allegation made against the PDP by an APC chieftain that the former was trying to rig Saturday’s election, describing it as a “lie from the pit of hell”.
“On the 12 March, the former Chairman of the APC addressed a cross section of the press where he alleged that PDP is planning to massively rig the forthcoming elections. That came as a surprise to us because the concept of rigging is alien to PDP. Since 1999, the grace of God and the will of the people have been trusted to the PDP and the leadership that the party had thrown up till date have continually kept faith in dealings with the people in terms of delivery of democracy,” he stated.
According to him, the party was an equal partner in any elections and does not believe in rigging. He therefore asked Tarabans not to believe the claim.
“We don’t believe in cutting corners. We don’t shortchange our partners in the race. All that we do is to deliver on what we promised to do to the people. And without sounding immodest, I should say that we have been doing our best. So it is ridiculous for somebody to gather the press (very serious set of people) to tell them that PDP is trying to rig election. We don’t even know how to start rigging election. Our winning streak resides in our manifesto and the people. So what the man said is a blatant lie, reject it.
“And this is to tell you the kind of people that play politics in Taraba. You know that what you are saying is a lie from the pit of hell, yet you peddle it. It is quite irresponsible. Governance is a very serious thing. It was a very serious insinuation from Ambassador Ardo and he should stop the wild goose chasing and concentrate on reaching out to the people if they have programmes and candidate at all and not to engage in cheap blackmail,” Irammae added.
But in a reaction to the allegations, the APC denied the allegation and actually blamed the PDP legislator, Captain Ndatse for moving with thugs and carrying weapons during campaigns.
“We are not involved. We don’t just stand on the road to attack people. According to the report, they said that he was going somewhere, and they stopped him at the roadblock. We don’t mount roadblocks, but I know that in the southern zone, because of security issues, they mount legitimate roadblocks to check people so that they don’t go about with dangerous weapons.
“It is quite possible he went with…because the reports we heard was that after he was searched at the roadblock, they found guns in his car. If he is going for campaign, why is he carrying guns? If law enforcement agents (I can’t identify the particular one) caught him with guns and he is going for a campaign, it means that he is creating mischief. So, the law has to take effect.
“The report was that after he was stopped and searched and found with guns, they were trying to alert the army to come in and he ran away.
“In any case, Donga or Mararaba where he is coming from is the home of APC. Whether we campaign or did not, APC will win Mararaba and we don’t have to fight to get any support from that place.
“It is his usual antics. Everyone in southern Taraba knows Ndatse with his antics. He is always involved in that kind of intimidating and insurrectionary politics. Because if it is not insurrectionary, why should he be arming youths and going around with them. I recall that in 2019, we went to campaign, and this (Ndatse) unleashed terror on our campaign convoy, shooting live bullets. Everybody knows Ndatse,” Aaron Artimas Artimas, the APC spokesman reacted.
Efforts made to reach the police spokesman in Taraba about the matter proved futile as he did not pick his call as at the time of filing this report.
