The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) on Tuesday fought back at attempts to de-market its presidential candidate, Muhammadu Buhari, who was reported on Monday to have approved the killing of Nigerians caught in the act of snatching ballot boxes during elections.
The presidential candidate of the main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, had accused Buhari of literarily encouraging extra- judicial killing by insinuating that ballot box snatchers would pay with their lives.
Atiku had said, “We were shocked to hear General Buhari live on national television threatening to kill people for an offence where no such proscription exists under law. The last time we looked the death-penalty was not a sanction of the 2010 election act.”
Speaking to the issue, however, National Chairman of APC, Adams Oshiomhole, lashed out at Atiku, saying his attack on the presidential directive to security operatives on tackling ballot box snatching during this weekend’s polls is tantamount to seeking protection for thugs and setting the country on fire.
Oshiomhole spoke Tuesday night with journalists at his private office on Aso Drive, Abuja.
“There is no responsible candidate down to the House of Assembly who will find fault in any pronouncement that seeks to discourage thuggery in the coming elections. So, for a man who is aspiring to preside over a country like Nigeria to seek protection for thuggery, to seek cover for thuggery, even as he has already said he would grant amnesty to looters, I do not think Nigerians have any basis to doubt that Atiku Abubakar’s mission is to set Nigeria on fire just so that he can become president even if he will preside over a graveyard. Only those who rely on thuggery can find fault with the President’s directive”, he said.
Also, Oshiomhole did not spare the PDP for alleging that the ruling party imported smart card readers from China to be deployed in certain parts of the country.
“We are not like stammerers who look for a fight because they cannot win an argument. Assuming, without conceding that it is true, it means Atiku is working hand in hand with the ICT unit in INEC to know the kind of card readers that are deployed to a particular location. INEC being independent as it is, I am not in a position to determine where the card readers would be deployed or where they were imported from”, he said.
