A group, Coalition of Civil Societies and Media Executives for Good Governance in Nigeria (COCMEGG) has accused the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Borno state and its Central Senatorial candidate, Mr Mohammed Abba Aji of plot to blackmail the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), by filing frivolous petitions to cause confusion ahead of the re-scheduled presidential and National Assembly elections.
A statement signed by the group’s executive director, Comrades Dennis Esumobi, and the Publicity Secretary, Gabriel Gbajume, on Sunday in Borno state, said it uncovered the plot while on election monitoring duty in the state.
The group said a senatorial candidate, Abba Aji who is spesrheading the plot had boycotted five out of the eight local government areas in his constituency during his campaign and on seeing the possibilities of losing,he resorted to blackmail.
“It is public knowledge that since 2011, our coalition comes for election monitoring in Borno state because of the peculiar situation here. We know that others avoid Borno. We are shocked to uncover from our findings that last weekend, the PDP in Borno state has resolved to disrupt the re-scheduled presidential and National Assembly elections by filing frivolous petitions against some officials of the (INEC), in Borno State.
“They resolved to concoct all kinds of baseless accusations in their petitions. We also uncovered that the PDP candidate for Borno Central Senatorial, Mohammed Abba Aji is behind these petitions. What is shocking about Aji is that whereas there are 8 local government areas in Borno Central, he narrowed all his campaigns to only Maiduguri Metropolitan Council, some parts of Jere and his town, Bama.
“He totally boycotted five local government areas made up of Konduga, Mafa, Dikwa, Ngala and Kala-Balge. He never for once campaigned in any of these five local government areas. At a point, we thought he had withdrawn from the race,” the group alleged.
