‘They Are Distributing Arms To Thugs’ – PDP Raises Alarm Of Plots To Disrupt Gov’ship Polls In Ebonyi

The Ebonyi State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has raised an alarm over alleged plots to disrupt the March 11 governorship polls in the state.

According to the Ebonyi PDP, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) are allegedly distributing arms to thugs in preparation to disrupt the forthcoming polls.

The PDP said it was part of plans to rig the governorship election, just like they claimed the presidential election was rigged in favour of the APC.

Naija News understands that the leadership of the PDP in the state in a statement issued through the director general of Anyichuks campaign council, Mr Austin Edeze claimed that during the Presidential and National Assembly election no fewer than 3 persons, including a corper who participated in the election as an INEC ad-hoc staff were killed in the Izzi LGA by thugs.

The party said it will therefore not fold its hands and allow the APC to rob them of their mandate again, just like how the presidential polls were marred with a high level of irregularities, killings, and fraudulently rigged.

Edeze stated that “From the announcement of the results, everything was rigged. And there could be no rigging without the cooperation of the INEC. We will employ all legal means to ensure that there is justice. We are calling for the cancellation of the results.

“Of course, we won the election last Saturday and we are going to win it again. We are going to prove that we won the last election. We will take care of these excesses, and we will not fold our hands and allow a repeat of what happened in the last election to take place.

“The impunity is at its peak in Izzi LGA. When a chairman of an LGA could come out and tell the traditional rulers that any person (s) who will not vote for APC guber candidate, Nwifuru should not come out, and that failure to vote for Nwifuru, the person should be brought down. The instruction is that if you cannot vote APC, do not come out to vote and if you come out, you should be brought down. The law enforcement agencies should not take this for a joke.”

However, Naija News gathered that in a swift reaction, the Ebonyi State APC debunked the allegation saying there was nothing of such and perhaps it will not do anything to discredit the governorship election in the state.

The Ebonyi APC Chairman, Stanley Okoro Emegha who denied bluntly the allegation remarked that “For somebody to say that the state government procured AK-47 for each of the 171 wards in the state, how can this happen? It will take the federal government so much money to procure such arms, and talk more of a state government.

“Are we building a military Barrack for such arms to be procured or are we going to war? People who are afraid of competition always make such high-level allegations. PDP is already losing out and that’s why they are alleging such. We don’t have such a plan and we are calling on security agencies to be mindful of what opposition Parties are doing, especially now we are entering into the gubernatorial election.”