The Presidency on Saturday faulted the decision of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party to drag the All Progressives Congress and the Independent National Electoral Commission to the United Nations over alleged plan to rig the 2019 general elections.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, said this in a statement made available to journalists.
Shehu said the PDP’s decision was not only laughable and puerile but also demonstrated the level of desperation that he said was haunting the opposition leaders.
Rather than raising false alarms, the presidential spokesman challenged the PDP leaders to address the concerns raised about their role in the mass data harvesting at the heart of the Facebook and Cambridge Analytica scandal.
The statement read, “The Presidency has advised the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party to stop raising false alarms in order to gain public sympathy and divert attention from its abysmal past record and failures.
“They should, instead, address the concerns raised about their role in the mass data harvesting at the heart of the Facebook and Cambridge Analytica scandal, following the revelation that they hacked into Candidate Muhammadu Buhari’s personal data in the run-up to the 2015 general elections.
“Nothing undermines a country’s democracy as such unfair practices.
That is why President Nixon resigned to avoid impeachment when they hacked into the opposition, Democratic Party records, and this is why a Special Counsel is investigating the alleged Russian interference in the US presidential election, and if President Donald Trump’s campaign is complicit in the attempted subversion of democracy in that country.
“The PDP’s decision to drag the All Progressives Congress and INEC to the United Nations over alleged plan or plot to rig the 2019 general elections are not only laughable and puerile, but they also demonstrate the level of desperation that is haunting the opposition leaders.”
“President Muhammadu Buhari is passionately committed to free and fair elections in the country and for a man who joined forces with local and international observers to ensure a free and fair election which brought him to power in 2015, the President would under no circumstances tolerate any attempt to derail constitutional democracy.”
