Guber poll: Assassination fever grips Ondo
…It’s cheap blackmail –ACN
Photo:
Sun News Publishing
Akogun
Date:
Tue, 07/03/2012 - 20:30
The Labour Party (LP) in Ondo State has raised the alarm over alleged
plans by the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) to assassinate prominent
Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) and the Action Congress of Nigeria’s
chieftains in the state.
The Labour Party’s Publicity Secretary, Mr. Koye Odogiyan in a statement
in Akure yesterday, alleged that the opposition party planned to
assasinate chieftains, to create the impression that the ruling Labour
Party was behind the act to earn the ACN people’s sympathy.
But in a swift reaction, the ACN described the allegation as, “cheap
blackmail from the Labour Party that is afraid of losing the coming
election to the ACN.”
The South West Publicity Secretary of the ACN, Ayo Afolabi, who reacted
on phone yesterday asserted that, “it is not in the character of our
great party to wrest power through violence, but through ballot boxes
and legally acceptable democratic means.”
He therefore challenged the LP to be bold enough to name names, just as
he urged the police to investigate the allegation with a view to
bringing out the culprits and identifying them to book.
In the LP statement, Odogiyan said reports at the disposal of the party
indicated that the ACN, at a meeting held in Osogbo, Osun State,
after appraising the effect of the ‘One Man One Vote’ pattern of the
recently held governorship election in Edo State became jittery, and “it
became apparent that should the same pattern be allowed to take place
in the October 20 election in Ondo State, the Labour Party, being the
party with mass appeal and the most popular in the state will carry the
day, hence the plan to create tension and sense of insecurity in the
state and also create voters apathy against the Labour party.”
Odogiyan further said: “ Information at our disposal indicates that the
Action Congress of Nigeria’s leadership has perfected plans to carry
out assassination plots on prominent Ondo natives from its own party
and the PDP.
“The level of vigilance witnessed at the recently held election in Edo
State, which made the much needed one- man- one- vote possible has
demonstrated that it will be impossible for an unpopular party to get
electoral victory in the country, hence the leadership of ACN
plan to create tension and panic among the electorate to intimidate
them to either shun the election or hurry back home after casting their
votes in fear.”
