APC Plotting To Cause Violence During Ondo Poll, Says CNPP

Some political parties in Ondo State under the aegis of Conference of Nigeria Political Parties have accused the All Progressive Congress of plotting to cause violence before and during the next governorship election in the state.

The CNPP claimed a former chairman of the ruling party said his supporters would engage in violence during the election. They said genuine stakeholders should be concerned with such statement while calling on security agencies to prevent such from happening.

The Ondo State Chairman of CNPP, Mr Rotimi Boboye, said at a press briefing on Tuesday that the recent actions of some APC members had shown that the party had concluded plans to cause violence during the election.

He said, “We have observed the recourse to violence, intimidation and subterfuge by officials of the outgoing APC government in Ondo State.

This dangerous development was manifested in the recent local government election largely boycotted by many political parties while a few of our members participated.

“In the said sham of an election, not only were candidates of participating parties intimidated, harrased and violently assaulted, voters were disenfranchised and figures concocted to meet the preplanned agenda of the outgoing APC government.

“Rather than abate, such violence have taken new dimensions with meetings of political parties being invaded by known thugs of the APC, their cronies and agents.

“We are aware that these spreading violence may not be unconnected with the well articulated though sinister position expressed by the said APC chieftian who is a self confessed militant and an apparachick of the APC, who not only boasted of being in possession of high calibre arms, but went ahead to name known harbingers of violence that are to be recruited to cause mayhem from within and outside state.”

The CNPP chairman suggested that the only way to avoid a sad repeat of the recent electoral violence in the state was to quickly arrest the descent into anarchy.

“Violence is spreading across the state and there are confirmed incidents of battered heads, broken limbs and bruised bodies which allign with the ‘strategy’ openly canvassed by Kekemeke which is yet to be condemned by his party, the APC.

“These have also been followed with illegal arrests, dehumanising treatment and detention of members of the opposition parties by police and military officers. We see these as a dress rehearsal to show the ‘preparedness” of the ‘warmongers’ to let loose violence on the opposition and the electorates in our dear state.”

He called on President Muhammadu Buhari to call Governor Rotimi Akeredolu to order and ensure that there was peace in the state before, during and after the governorship poll.