The All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democracy Party (PDP) are currently accusing themselves over a recent attack on members of the APC in Abia State, who were injured while holding a meeting.
In a statement issued in Lagos by National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, APC accused the PDP of using thugs to attack its members in the state and disrupting their meeting on 17th September 2013, further alleging that the kind of intolerance and brigandage demonstrated by the PDP government in the state negates the very essence of democracy.
The party noted that the attack was carried out by 10 young men armed with guns, machetes and wooden sticks, describing this as very dangerous and a manifestation of misdirected aggression. It argued that if parties that hold sway in a certain state would not allow other parties in that state to meet, then a direct arrow would have been fired at the very heart of democracy and the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“Freedom of association is guaranteed by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The intolerance demonstrated by the PDP government in Abia State, which unleashed hired party thugs on a peaceful gathering of the APC in Abia Central Senatorial District on 17th September 2013 is undoubtedly a violation of the Constitution and an attack on democracy itself,” APC stated.
“It is the same intolerance that has driven the larger PDP to the brink of extinction, the same anti-democratic acts that have seen one faction of the ruling party unleash the security agencies against the other, and the same impunity that has turned a ruling party to an agent of destabilisation of the polity.”
The party commended its members in Abia for being law-abiding and for refusing to descend to the same level of brigandage as the PDP, considering the scale of the attacks that left several APC members injured and 10 vehicles, 15 motorcycles, 500 plastic chairs, public address system and others destroyed.
“We are particularly impressed by the maturity of the APC leaders in Abia who, instead of engaging the PDP thugs in a fire-for-fire stance, showed utmost restraint and then reported the incident to the State Commissioner of Police.
“We hereby call on the Police and other security agencies in the state to prevent a recurrence of such attacks. We urge the PDP-run government in the state to allow democracy to thrive, while appealing to our members in Abia to remain peaceful.”
But the PDP, in a reaction Tuesday morning, denied the allegation, calling APC’s National Publicity Secretary a serial liar.
“The attention of People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Abia State has been drawn to spurious allegations by the All Progressives Congress (APC) that ’10 young men armed with guns, machetes and wooden sticks’ purportedly disrupted APC’s meeting in Abia State on 17th September 2013.
“Ordinarily, we would have disregarded this allegation, coming from Alhaji ‘LIE’ Mohammed, an unrepentant alarmist whose stock in trade is to promote ill feelings and lie without limit,” the party said in a statement signed by Chief Uchechi Ogbuka, its Publicity Secretary for Abia State.
“In the interest of most of our supporters and indeed Abians who have been inundated with these messages, it is only responsive to put the records straight. APC in Abia state only exists in ‘LIE’ Mohammed’s eye. Let us accept that in Lai Mohammed’s usual antics, he is creating awareness for the eventual launching of APC in Abia. For now, APC remains a logical construct and a ghost apparition in Abia.
“We challenge APC to furnish us with particulars of their offices and members in Abia. It is only by genuinely establishing the veracity of what they would claim that we could begin to give them the attention they seek.
“Abia State remains the most peaceful state within the south east region. The implication is that activities of miscreants have been reduced to a terrible zero while the PDP government in the state is pursuing aggressive programmes that promote participatory democracy.
“APC failed to avail the public that vital information regarding their show of shame at an isolated area of Umuhia on 17th September 2013. Investigations revealed that various splinter (yet very insignificant) groups (Victor Ume APGA-APC, APGA–UPP, Maxi Okwu APGA–APC; CPC-APC etc) of political parties laying claims to ownership of APC engaged each other in fisticuffs. What ensured may better be described as a regulated misunderstanding amongst confused people.
“Otherwise, Alhaji Lai Mohammed should tell us which Police Station recorded the complaint of the so-called 10 young men armed with guns, machetes and wooden sticks. There is something APC is hiding.”
PDP added that it remains the only physically visible and political alive party in Abia State, stressing that it nonetheless encourages other parties to freely exist.
“We would advise Lai Mohammed and his annoyingly notice-seeking co-travellers in APC to consider exporting members from Maiduguri, Sokoto, Kano, and maybe Lagos to make up APC in Abia. This is given that at the moment, APC does not exist in Abia.”
