APC to Jonathan: Take charge of your campaign

The APC Presidential Campaign Organisation yesterday, urged
President Goodluck Jonathan and the leadership of Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) to take charge of their campaign for
re-election, warning that their surrogates may plunge Nigeria
into confusion and anarchy.
Deploring a front-page cover advertisement on yesterday’s
edition of some newspapers in which Nigerians were asked to
choose between life and death, grouping General Buhari
among former Nigerian leaders who were either killed or died
of natural causes while in office, the APC campaign
organisation said, “this is the height of desperate tactics by
the PDP, which is capable of degenerating into unnecessary
bloodshed and destruction. They are choosing death for us.
This is not politics. We are therefore, asking our supporters to
stay calm and be law-abiding.”
Buhari’s campaign office, in a statement, signed by Mallam
Garba Shehu, Director of Media and Publicity said, “even as a
candidate, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan has a duty to lead the
country with responsibility until May 29, when a new President
will be inaugurated.”
The APC alleged that the ongoing campaign on Buhari’s
health, using forged medical reports, and now, suggestions of
death, are reeking of plots to eliminate him (Buhari) before or
after he wins.
The party warned that “the whole world is watching and that
if anything happens to General Muhammadu Buhari before,
during or after the elections, under the pretext of X, Y, or Z,
we shall be left with no option than to conclude that the PDP
and their surrogates are to be held accountable.”
The statement further appealed to “all APC members and
millions of supporters of Buhari across the country not to play
into the hands of the PDP hatchet men to be provoked and
thereby, giving them the much-needed excuse to abort this
democracy before or after the elections.”
Shehu explained that APC campaign remained faithfully
committed to the peace accord signed by the country’s
political parties under the auspices of Ambassador Kofi Annan.
He, however, alleged that the PDP was paying lip service to
this commitment by trying to stoke the embers of hate, which
he said, is inconsistent with the commitment to peace.
The statement also advised the police, the SSS, the
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the
advertising regulatory agency in Nigeria (APCON) to do their
jobs by not allowing these dangerous threats to democracy go
unchecked.
The campaign outfit stated: “Once again, the APC campaign
advises all its supporters to strive to stay above the ‘rofo-
rofo,’ which is clearly designed to provoke our supporters to
help the PDP sinister agenda to abort this hard fought-for
democracy in view of their impending defeat in the forthcoming
general elections.”
Meanwhile, the APC campaign said petitions were being sent
to Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON), INEC,
DSS, Nigeria Police and the newspapers involved, to protest
the malicious death wish.