The opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) in Adamawa State has yesterday said it will never allow the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to rig local government election again in the state advising the ruling party to conduct a free and fair election in its own interest.
The state independent electoral commission, has commenced processes that will lead to the conduct of local government election in the state.
Making the position of the party during a chat with newsmen in Yola, the spokesman of APC in Adamawa State, Abdullahi Mohammed warned the PDP against any untoward action as his party is prepared to pay back the party in its own coin.
Mohammed who was upbeat that in a free and fair contest, APC will emerge victorious in majority of the local governments however insisted that they will never accept a situation where the ruling party will impose candidate through violent usurpation of the peoples franchise.
“This is the second council election this government is conducting. The first one was riddled with violence and electoral fraud leading to the violent usurpation of the peoples mandate.
“During that shambolic process, the PDP forcefully denied our party the chance to partake in the election. In my Ward (Tambajam Ward) where our APC chairmanship candidate came materials for the councillor’s election were destroyed and the PDP councillor declared winner without a single vote.
“Knowing that it will lose the election woefully, the PDP mobilized thugs who wrought violence on our people and destroyed electoral materials including ballots.
“We took a video of the violent incident which we sent to the chairman of Adamawa State Independent Electoral Commission but that glaring evidence of electoral malfeasance did not prevent him from declaring the candidate of PDP who did not get a single vote as the chairman of Maiha local government,” he said.
Warning the ruling party to recant its old ways, Mohammed said, his party is prepared to match the PDP violence for violence during the election.
“This time around we will not fold our arms and allow PDP to violently impose unpopular candidates. We will surely pay them in their own coins.
“We shall observe due process and follow rules and regulations guiding the election but will not hesitate to pay back the PDP in its own coin especially when they introduce violence,” Mohammed said.
He noted that in order to ensure a seamless process, his party has advised stakeholders to go back to their local governments, harmonize and produce a single name on each of the contested positions so as to come into the election as a strong and united force.
“We have advised that stakeholders should produce one candidate for every position but where many people insist on participating then we shall conduct party primaries in line with democratic demands,” he said.
He noted that with the caliber of people in APC he is upbeat that the party will emerge victorious in most of the local governments during the forthcoming election dismissing the governor’s touted claim that he had slain the party in the state.
The opposition party has commenced the sale of nomination forms on Tuesday so as to participate in the coming local government election.
