The Federal government yesterday claimed that it has uncovered credible intelligence report on fresh plot by the opposition to instigate widespread violence in the upcoming general elections.
Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, who raised the alarm at a press conference, said the plot would be executed before, during and after the polls by enlisting the support of some western countries.
He said the opposition knows that they will lose the election, but they want victory by subterfuge.
The minister disclosed that the opposition are sending delegations to some western nations, including London, Brussels and Washington DC, to push the concocted line that the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration has perfected plans to rig the polls.
They are therefore pushing for a rejection of the results, if the president wins a re-election, while predicting carnage in the event of the president’s victory.
He accused the Coalition of United Political Parties, (CUPP) and its allies of setting up a 10-member team that is currently mobilising support in the United States, United Kingdom and Belgium against credible and peaceful elections.
He said the opposition has no empirical basis for the idea they are pushing, beyond relying on exploiting the nation’s ‘fault lines’ of religion, ethnicity and regionalism.
According to the ministers, the opposition is approaching the election with an incredible level of desperation and has activated their own version of the infamous Association for Better Nigeria (ABN), in the failed 1993 political transition process.
This, they do under the guise of CUPP, to engage in unrestrained rabble-rousing and frivolous court cases.
Mohammed argued that the activities of CUPP in recent times speak volumes, even though the coalition seems to be a very poor imitation of the original ABN.
He assured that the Buhari administration is committed to free, fair, credible and peaceful polls, adding: “We are glad that local and international observers are already fully mobilised to monitor the election.”
The minister disclosed that the opposition has targeted the two key institutions that are most critical to the success of the election, which are the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the Police.
They have used every malleable and malicious personality to make wild allegations against INEC. Their strategy is simple, and it is to discredit the election even before it is held, and to continue during and after the polls.
This, he added, is with a view to convincing the West, which they believe they have won to their side, using lobbyist-propelled propaganda, that the election is not credible.
