APC Not Ready for Fair Play, PDP Tells German Envoy

Accuses ruling party of plot to rig Ekiti election

Onyebuchi Ezigbo

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has accused the All Progressives Congress-led federal government of muscling the opposition and refusing to respect the rule of law.

The National Chairman of the party, Prince Uche Secondus, alleged that APC and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) have perfected ploy to rig the Ekiti State governorship election.

Secondus stated this when the German Ambassador to Nigeria, Dr Bernhard Schlagheck, paid a courtesy call on the PDP national leadership.

“We want to encourage Germany and other development partners to prevail on the leadership of the APC to abide by the rules of the game. We don’t want crisis in the country, we want in the country and we are preaching peace,” he said.

Secondus who urged the international community to prevail on the incumbent administration to ensure free and fair election, said: “July Ekiti State governorship election will be the first test for this administration. We know that the APC and INEC have perfected plans rig the election.”

He accused the APC-led administration of refusing to respect the rule of law.

The PDP national chairman said instead of the APC-led administration to fulfill its 2015 campaign promises, it has plunged Nigeria into series of crisis.

He further cautioned that lack of free and fair election is a major cause of crisis in Africa, saying “when citizens are deprived of their right to vote, that will generate crisis that might be difficult to control.”

He added: “Nigeria is an important country on the continent of Africa. The best we can give to our people is election that will be transparent, election that will be credible, election that all, both local and international will welcome.

“So we urge the governing APC that the best they can give this country is to offer one man, one vote. We did that during the electoral campaign in 2015 but they are not assuring this, which means that there is a great fear in the land that the election is not going to be free and fair despite all the promises made by INEC.”

The PDP chairman said he has embarked on two pronged strategy to project the party ahead of 2019, namely generation next and rescue mission.

According to him, generation next is aimed at ensuring mentoring for the youths, while the rescue mission is aimed at salvaging Nigeria from APC’s misrule.

The Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremmadu, yesterday challenged the proposed seizure of some of his properties by the federal government.

The government had on March 21, 2018, approached the Federal High Court in Abuja for an interim order for the temporary forfeiture of some of his undeclared properties worth billions of naira.

The properties, 22 of them, are said to be located both within and outside the country.

Nine of the mentioned properties are said to be in Abuja, two in London, United Kingdom, eight in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and three in Florida, United States.

The government had brought the suit pursuant to section 330 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015 and section 8 of the Recovery of Public Property (Special Provision) Act.

In the suit marked FHC/ABJ/ CS/284/2018, the applicant, (Special Presidential Investigative Panel for the Recovery of Public Property) is seeking an order of temporary forfeiture of the said properties pending the conclusion of its investigation.

The government claimed that without the court’s order attaching/forfeiting the said properties, “the likelihood of the frustration of investigations as well as the dissipation of the said properties is very high.”

It was the contention of the government that the matter was of utmost public interests and concern, and as