Guber poll: Assassination fever grips Ondo

 …It’s cheap blackmail –ACN

 

Photo: 

Sun News Publishing

Akogun

By: 

AIDOGHIE PAULINUS, Abuja

Date: 

Tue, 07/03/2012 

 

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.”

SOURCE: 19 July 2012.