POLITICS: Full Text of 4 March 2015 Press Briefing By Alhaji Lai Mohammed, APC National Publicity Secretary

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By Efio-Ita Nyok

Good morning gentlemen and welcome to this press
conference.

It’s just about three weeks to the start of the
rescheduled 2015 general elections, and the
expectations across the country and outside our
borders are very high, just as the tension among
Nigerians!

The eyes of the world are focused on our country,
Nigeria, to organize a free, fair, credible and
violence-free election that will not only deepen our
democracy but will also show to the world that our
leadership position in the West African sub-region
and the African continent is not a fluke.

While we in the All Progressives Congress (APC),
and definitely most Nigerians, also expect nothing
less than very transparent elections, indications are
that those at the helms have grown so desperate
that they do not even want the elections to hold.

And even if the elections must hold at all, they must be
held on their own terms: No PVCs, No Car Readers,
No Jega, and the military must be deployed to
intimidate voters!
These dangerous conditionalities by the ruling
party, the PDP, and the Jonathan Administration
have been playing out publicly, no thanks to the
inauspicious comments by elements of the ruling
party, who could no longer hide their disdain for
credible polls and, indeed, for democracy itself.

But what has not played out openly are some of the
criminal and unlawful actions being secretly
hatched by the PDP and the Jonathan
Administration to rig the forthcoming general
elections and perpetuate themselves in power.

The handwriting is clear: This Administration knows
it can never win in a free, fair and credible elections
because of its appalling record in office. Nigerians
want change through the ballot box, and they are
determined to effect that change with their PVCs.

Let me now take you through some of those evil
plots being hatched to deny the people of Nigerians
their right to vote for change.

1. There is a plot to transfer a humongous amount
of money into the bank account of the INEC
Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, and then claim that
the money came from Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu
and the APC in order to justify the ongoing plan to
sack Prof. Jega so he won’t organize the elections.
Beyond Jega, there is also a plan to credit the bank
accounts of some key national institutions with
huge amounts of money purportedly from our party,
the APC, ostensibly to compromise those
institutions.

2. There is plan to use some political parties that
are satellites of the PDP to push for the
postponement of the elections again. The plot is to
get the parties to address a press conference to
say the elections should not hold in the North-east
until Sept. 2015 because of the ongoing counter-
insurgency battle there. The intention is to make
sure Jega’s tenure expires before the polls, so that
they can appoint a malleable card-carrying member
of the PDP as INEC Chair to conduct the polls.

3. There a plan to use the security agencies to
intimidate key opposition leaders as well as the
Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and
telecommunications service providers to disrupt
voice and data transmission, especially in APC
strongholds, on election day.
As we have said earlier, the telephones of our
leaders have been bugged and their movements
are being daily monitored.
Top on the list of the security agencies to be used
against the opposition is the DSS, which will be
used to compel all Resident Electoral
Commissioners in the 36 states and the Federal
Capital Territory to hand over the names and
telephone numbers of all INEC’s regular and ad
hoc staff who will conduct the elections, as part of
the Jonathan Administration’s rigging plans.
It is no longer news that a signal has been sent to
all state commands of the DSS to get the list of all
INEC Returning Officers and Adhoc Staff before
March 10th.

4. There is also the ongoing illegal recruitment over
500 new cadets into one of the country’s security
outfits, 50% of whom are from the home state of the
outfit’s top brass, in violation of the provisions of
the Constitution, especially as the recruitment does
not reflect the Federal Character

5. Nocturnal meetings are being held between
various heads of national security agencies and the
leadership of the PDP to undermine the coming
elections;

6. The Presidency has retained the services of two
Israelis and a Belgian who are currently holed up in
the Aso Rock Villa to hack and corrupt INEC
computers on election day, with the trio having
already been paid 25 percent of their contract fees
upfront.

7. There is an ongoing effort to compromise the
card reader, which the Jonathan Administration
sees as inimical to its rigging plans.

8. Huge funds are being provided for retired and
serving security personnel to buy up PVCs, with the
hope that they can be used once the card reader is
compromised. Remember, gentlemen, that there is
a case in court seeking to declare the use of the
card reader in the forthcoming elections
unconstitutional.

9. In the days leading up to the elections, the
Jonathan Administration is planning to give the
opposition the Ekiti treatment by massively
arresting key opposition leaders, with a view to
destabilizing their ranks, putting them away and
paving the way for a free rein of their rigging
agents. Towards this end, thousands of signed
blank detention orders have been procured.

10. As part of the plan to implicate our leaders,
illegal substances may be put into their checked-in
luggage during local and international flights. That is
why we are calling on our leaders to travel only with
their carry-on baggage.
Let me say that the detailed plans by the desperate
Jonathan Administration and the PDP are part of the
massive intelligence we are receiving daily from
patriotic Nigerians, within and outside the
government, who are eager to see the organization
of a free, fair, credible and violence-free elections
that will catapult Nigeria to the league of truly
democratic nations.
We have decided to share the information we are
receiving with Nigerians because we believe that no
power is strong enough to stop a people who are
determined to effect change in the way and manner
they are being governed, and that the ultimate
power resides in the people.
We have no doubt that the information will fortify
the local and international observers who are
coming for the elections, in addition to enhancing
the vigilance of the citizenry before, during and
after the polls.

I thank you for listening

Alhaji Lai Mohammed
National Publicity Secretary
All Progressives Congress (APC)
Lagos, March 4th 2015