By Peter Claver
A former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Timi Frank, on Thursday, accused the APC was fuelling agitations and riots over the scarcity of new Naira notes to heat up Nigeria and postpone elections.
According to him, the APC has chosen a dangerous route to retain power by instigating killings and destruction of property by paid irate mob protesting scarcity of naira.
He advised President Muhammadu Buhari not to bow to pressure and blackmail through ongoing sponsorship of riots to trigger election shift.
Frank, Ambassador to United Liberation Movement for West Papua (East Africa and Middle East), expressed the views in a statement issued in Abuja.
He insisted that the APC was fuelling the crisis to enable them perfect their vote buying and rigging strategies ahead of the elections.
“It is unfortunate that the APC has chosen a dangerous route to retain power by instigating killings and destruction of property by paid irate mob protesting scarcity of new Naira notes.
“I dare say that the country is bigger than any political party or party candidates. Instigating crisis to provoke a postponement of the elections is least expected of the APC”, Frank said.
He called on President Buhari and the Independent National Electoral Commission to be resolute in their commitment to conduct the elections notwithstanding the evil machinations of the APC to get the polls shifted.
The activist called on the international community especially election observers already deployed by statutory bodies to monitor the elections to put pressure on the nation’s election management body to hold the election as scheduled.
He insisted that if elections are being held in countries in worse security situations or experiencing full blown war, there is no justification to postpone the forthcoming elections on the basis of protests over scarcity of new naira notes.
Frank said, “Even though the riots seem localized in the southern parts of the country, we have information that very soon APC will cause it to spread to states in the North.
“This to enable them sustain their blackmail and pressure on INEC and Buhari to postpone the elections under the guise of widespread violence.
“We condemn this resort to violence being masterminded by the APC and we call on all well meaning Nigerians and international development partners not only to condemn this shenanigans by the ruling party but to hold it responsible for all deaths and properties being destroyed at this time as well as any postponement of the election.”
