Violence-free polls: APC restates call for peace meeting withPDP

All Progressives Congress (APC) has restated its call for a
meeting of the leadership of the APC and the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) to stem the rising cases of violence
ahead of next month’s polls.
In a statement issued in Lagos yesterday by its National
Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said such
a meeting would send a powerful message of zero tolerance
to violence to the supporters of both parties, those of other
parties and indeed the entire people of the country and the
international community, and douse the tension that was
building up ahead of the election.
It said the call was a follow-up to the practical steps that had
been taken by the party (APC), dating back to May 2014,
when it first wrote to the leadership of the PDP calling for
such a meeting.
“Following up on a meeting of representatives of both parties
in Washington, DC, US between April 7 and 8, 2014 under the
auspices of the CSIS Nigeria Election Forum, at which it was
agreed that a joint meeting of both parties be convened to
discuss and agree on the crucial issue of a Code of Conduct
for the campaigns and the elections, we wrote a letter to the
PDP suggesting a bipartisan meeting to address the issue,”
APC said.
“We have since been following up on the letter, the latest
effort being on December 28, 2014, when we again called for
the holding of the bipartisan meeting. Apart from its reply to
our initial letter, the
PDP has not responded to our peace overtures till date,’’ APC
said.
The party said, however, that whether or not the PDP signed
on to such a meeting, the APC – as a peaceful party – would
continue to educate its members and supporters on the need
to eschew all forms of violence before, during and after the
election.
APC restated its pledge to continue working for violence-free
polls next month, even though the opposition party had been
at the receiving end of a series of grave acts of violence in
recent times
“It is common knowledge that our supporters were shot at
while travelling to Port Harcourt for the inaugural presidential
campaign on January 6. The police even prevented those of
them who were
hospitalized and treated for gunshot wounds from being
discharged.
“Also, our office in Okrika was bombed on January 11. Another
major incident is the burning of the Jonathan campaign buses
in Jos, which is a PDP-on-PDP violence in the wake of the
intra-party crisis in Plateau after an apparently unpopular
candidate, was rigged in as the party’s governorship flag-
bearer in the state. The APC had nothing to do with the Jos
violence, even though the PDP has tried to spin it in order to
portray our supporters as being behind it.
“Even then, our presidential candidate, General Muhammadu
Buhari, moved fast to condemn the violence in Jos. On the
contrary, neither President Goodluck Jonathan nor any of his
party leaders has condemned the shooting of our supporters
and the bombing of our office in Okrika,’’ the party said.
It said only the PDP could benefit from acts of violence,
because it does not want the forthcoming election to hold,
having seen the handwriting on the wall, adding: ‘’We suspect
that is why the party has been cold to our persistent calls for
a meeting of the leadership of the two major parties to avert
violence.’’
APC said as a party waiting in the wings to assume office at
the centre, on the strength of the votes of Nigerians next
month, it could not allow violence to scuttle the will of the
people.
The party also expressed curiosity at the escalating Boko
Haram crisis in the North-East, saying it fitted perfectly into
the strategic plan of the PDP to depopulate areas where it
was not popular ahead of the elections.
It said, however, that Nigerians would reject violence and vote
en masse to bring about the much-needed change in the
country, instead of the continuity of insecurity, poverty,
corruption, bad economy, impunity and bad leadership which
the PDP was clamouring for.