The Buhari Media Organisation has said that the Peoples Democracy Party’s hasty response to President Muhammadu Buhari’s directives that ballot snatchers and thugs be dealt with by security agencies is proof that the opposition party has been planning to rig elections.
The organisation said the PDP had become aggrieved because its only chance at victory had been taken from it.
The group, in a statement signed by its Chairman, Niyi Akinsiju and Secretary, Cassidy Madueke, accused the PDP of deliberately misinterpreting the statement of the President to mean calling for violence when they knew it was not.
The statement read, “The Peoples Democratic Party knew exactly what the President was talking about, but chose to deliberately misinterpret him.
“Anyone who has no plan to rig the elections has no need to fear the consequences of the actions of ballot snatchers and thugs on the day of elections.
“But being that the PDP had already put on its roadmap and strategy, ballot snatching and thuggery, especially in strongholds of President Buhari, it is worried that the lives of those it has engaged to thwart Nigeria’s elections can no longer be guaranteed.”
The group said the response showed that the PDP had no plans whatsoever to participate in peaceful and lawful elections.
“In the last 16 years of our democracy, elections have been marred by violence perpetrated by thugs and ballot snatchers. Innocent people have lost their lives and many others have been injured due to the activities of these thugs.
“President Buhari’s directive to security agencies is one that is saying that those needless deaths and injuries must be put to an end by bringing those who perpetrate electoral violence to book,” the group added.