…undermining their freedom to exercise their franchise of voting for their preferred Party
The People’s Democratic Party, Sokoto Chapter has decried the high level of intimidation, harassment meted on their supporters by the security Operatives during the just concluded governorship and state assembly election.
READ ALSO: EFCC Arrests Four NCAA Officials Over Alleged Fraud
This was disclosed in a press release signed by the party chairman Hon. Muhammad Bello Aliyu Goronyo on Tuesday, 21st of March 2023.
The statement reads;
“The Peoples’ Democratic Party as a law abiding Party with longest history of governance in Nigeria is using this medium to commend its teaming supporters in Sokoto state for their sustained commitment and resilience which manifested in their mass trooping out to vote for the party in the just concluded governorship and state assembly elections.
Available data confirm that the turn out for this last election was almost nine hundred thousand which contrasted with the Presidential and National Assembly Elections which has the turnout of about six hundred thousand voters.
The party is not unmindful of the ordeal that its teaming members are being subjected to, deliberately by the leadership of the APC.
This situation was plotted deliberately by the appointment of the Minister of Police Affairs as the Director General of the APC Campaign Council in the state.
We have witnessed unprecedented misuse of security to arrest, harass and intimidate our members towards undermining their freedom to exercise their franchise of voting for their preferred Party.
GOVERNORSHIP/STATE ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS
The Party is collating and studying reports from all the local government areas in the state on the March 18th Governorship and State Assembly Elections.
We are already in possession of disturbing violation of the Electoral Act and appropriate measures will be taken to address the anomaly to ensure that the right of the voters upheld.
WANTON KILLINGS, MAIMING AND DESTRUCTION OF PUBLIC PROPERTIES IN THE STATE
Since the announcement of the result of the election which purportedly gave legitimacy to unprecedented electoral fraud in the state, the much anticipated political violence which characterize the APC antecedent in the state has manifested in alarming proportion across all the Local Government in the state we are indeed constrained to put on record the dastardly act of killings that occurred in some part of the state.
1. Three innocent citizens were killed in Shagari by close associates of the leader of the party (APC) in the state.
2. Killing of the son of PDP supporter Late Armiya’u Mada in Tudun Wada area in Sokoto.
3. A business woman in Katami was purportedly robbed of over three hundred bags of grains.
The list of those who suffer harassment, intimidation and loss of property in different parts of the state are disturbingly alarming.
Meanwhile instead of arresting and arraigning the perpetrators to face justice security is busy focusing attention on PDP supporters based on prompting by the APC leadership in the state.
We are therefore using this medium to assure all PDP supporters and law abiding citizens in the state that these callous acts are being followed to ensure justice to the victims”.
(C)ControlTV2023.
