8th January, 2013
The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has alerted the nation about the desperate measures being planned by the PDP-led Federal Government to discredit and silence key opposition leaders involved in the ongoing plans to form a formidable platform to confront the PDP in 2015.
In a statement issued in Lagos on Tuesday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said the paranoia over the merger plans has driven the PDP-led FG to resort to imprudent and crude tactics aimed at tarnishing the image of key opposition leaders, especially ACN leader Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and his CPC counterpart Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, as well as their close political associates.
It said Tinubu is particularly a prime target of these evil machinations, because of his status as the leader of the country’s second biggest party, his progressive credentials as well as his electoral value, adding that as far as the PDP-led government is concerned, getting him out of the way is the best way to ruin the merger plans.
“For the Jonathan-led administration, and not minding its deceptive aloofness from it all, the race for 2015 has started in earnest and it is a do-or-die affair, and all means foul and unfair are on the table to cripple the opposition, by ensuring that nothing will be left of the integrity of its key leaders even if they are fortunate to make it to 2015.
“These opposition leaders are considered as constituting a clear and present danger to the electoral fortunes of the PDP in 2015, hence must be stopped at all costs and by whatever means,’’ ACN said.
The party said a huge war chest has been earmarked for the phased campaign, which has already started with a well-oiled media war, being waged especially online, denigrating these leaders.
“Some key government agencies have also been co-opted to dig up any dirt they hope can be plastered on the targeted leaders, while foreign intelligence agencies have been contacted in a desperate attempt to unearth any information that can be used to discredit and disgrace these major opposition figures thus distracting them from the merger plans.
“Indications are that highly-combustible sectional and religious issues, that are being manipulated by desperate forces to divide and destroy, are not off the table as long as exploiting them can shut down the opposition. Or how else does one interpret a recent PDP statement that President Goodluck Jonathan is being criticized by the opposition because he is from a minority ethnic group?
“And what about the continuous efforts, which have failed so far, to portray a key opposition leader as a sponsor of Boko Haram? His nomination as a ‘facilitator’ of some phantom peace talks was not an accident, but was carefully choreographed to portray him as a religious zealot and terrorist not fit to preside over the affairs of the nation,’’ it said.
ACN warned that every single action of the PDP-led federal government concerning the stated evil machinations will be put under the microscope henceforth.