The Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP), which serves as the umbrella body of opposition parties in Nigeria has raised alarm over what it called plot by the Presidency to rig the polls.
According to the coalition, an unholy alliance among the trio of the Presidency; the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and security forces might lead to the declaration of fake results.
But the All Progressive Congress (APC), in a quick response, said it would not waste its time replying to the allegation by CUPP.
The APC National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Lanre Isa-Onilu, in a statement said: ‘’CUPP can say anything; they can take a full page in a newspaper. I won’t be replying them.’’
The CUPP also drew the attention of Nigerians to plans by the President Buhari administration to deploy military personnel across the country ahead of the polls.
This was made in a statement issued yesterday by its first spokesman, Ikenga Ugochinyere.
The statement which read in part stated: “The Coalition of United Political Parties has raised alarm over the unholy collaboration between the Presidency, the ruling APC and the leadership of the Nigerian security forces to rig the 2019 Presidential elections, announce fake results and deploy lethal force to quell the expected popular resistance. This has come to light with the unprecedented move of the Nigerian Army to put the entire country on military lock down from 28th December, 2018 to 28th February, 2019 in a maneuver termed Operation Python Dance III.
“We hold that by law, it is only the President and Commander-In-Chief that can deploy the military. We wonder why the President acknowledges that failure and inability of the Inspector General of Police, IGP, to maintain law and order by deploying the military in one breathe and yet in another is neck deep in the plot to extend the tenure of the IGP.
“If there was really any genuine desire to checkmate those plotting violence during the elections, why was the exercise not extended to after the governorship elections? The desire of the Presidency is just to use the security forces to foist an unpopular President Buhari on the people.”
The coalition went further to alleged scheme by the electoral adjudicator to allow itself to be compromised in the conduct of the polls.
It said: “Our credible intelligence also have shown that apart from the security plots, several compromised Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC officials have been recruited by Hajia Amina Zakari and are currently undergoing special training.
“Police Special Forces are also undergoing drills on what to do and we shall expose them if they are deployed for election rigging exercise. “No wonder the President is adamant on unlawfully retaining the Inspector General of Police beyond his legal tenure. The Special Forces are to be deployed to the various states under the command of selected APC chieftains who shall be issuing directives on what should be done. We shall soon obtain the list of deployments and the APC leaders who shall be in command and we shall make same available to the people.”
