The Presidential Campaign Council (PCC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has raised alarm over frustrations from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) by not allowing opposition parties mount bill boards in their states.
The campaign council lamented that they do not even allowed opposition parties to use government facilities including government radio and television stations.
Director of Strategic Communication of PCC, Dele Momodu at a Press Conference which held at the Atiku Presidential Campaign Office on Friday in Abuja lamented that democracy connotes freedom of association. He said that if the hostility were issued on the ruling party in 2014, President Muhammadu Buhari could not have emerged as President.
He said, “In practically all APC controlled states, It’s been virtually impossible for us to install our billboards, to paste our posters, use APC government controlled radio stations, especially in Lagos where the candidate of the APC is seen as next to God.
“So, I wish to appeal through you to the federal government since they control the APC, that this is not what democracy is all about. I was one of those who fought and suffered for this democracy. We never envisaged that in the civilian regime, we are going to have this kind of harassment, whereby we cannot practice democracy as it should be done”.
Momodu confessed that he was at the forefront of Buhari’s campaign and had unfettered access to government facilities. He called on the President to call the governors to order just as he urged security agencies to protect the bill board and other accoutrement belonging to the PDP.
“In 2014 – 2015, I was one of those who supported Buhari, and there was never a time that PDP disturbed us because if they had disturbed us, maybe there would have been no Buhari. So, we are hoping that Mr. president would help us speak to the security agencies, to protect the lives of our people, to protect our properties wherever they are on the soil of Nigeria, because we are all Nigerians”.
He said that PDP and its candidate Atiku Abubakar towers higher than other candidates of other political parties.
“There is no doubt in my mind right now that PDP is in the lead when it comes to campaigning. When it comes to positive messaging, the others I will not say they are in disarray but they are struggling. PDP is clearly in the lead. PDP is a very responsible political party. We are the most organized political party and that is why if you have monitored or if you have followed our rallies, you would have noticed that they are usually carnivals, carnivals of ideas, carnivals of issues. A few times we’ve had issues, it was because some people wanted to disrupt our rallies. But thank God we have a very good defense team. They always go ahead to make sure that they can guarantee maximum security because if you go to a rally and people get killed or injured, nobody wants to come to the next rally. So we have been extremely fortunate that we’ve been able to prevent the thugs from taking over our rallies.
“People can see the clear difference between His Excellency Atiku Abubakar and the other challengers. It’s very clear that he is the most experienced, the most detribalized, he doesn’t go anywhere discriminating against anyone, he is prepared. Nigeria can afford another sad experiment or experimentation, because if you are not prepared, that is what will happen. He knows what to do from day one”.
He further clarified that the video being circulated where some staff on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) were seen harvesting numbers in voters card, was for them to contact the owners of the cards and not for any mischievous purposes.
“We are particularly vigilant about INEC and anybody who knows me very well knows I live on social media. So I heard it, I picked up the footage of the video where the ladies seemed to be harvesting people’s details on PVC. I immediately forwarded it to a top member of INEC and then they were very, responsive.
“They explained that they were not fiddling with the PVCs, that there are a lot of uncollected PVCs and what they were doing is to get the details so that they can forward text messages to the owners as a reminder”.
He said that the attack on Senator Maeba in Port Hacourt calls for concern and called on the Security agencies to investigate the matter.
“The National Security Adviser last week, came out and he said that the President has clearly instructed them to deal ruthlessly with troublemakers. We all know all the trouble spots. I’m surprised that after the President gave the instruction, some people still attacked the home of Senator Lee Maeba.
“The brother was told while he was being macheted, that if Senator was home, one bullet would have solved the problem.
“Yes, there are internal issues within PDP but that should not result in bloodshed. I don’t want to apportion blame because I’m not a security agent. So I have no facts of the case. And it’s even possible it could have been an opportunistic attack from anywhere we don’t know. So we appeal to our party members in Rivers to cool temper”.
