APC Accuses DSS, PDP Of Plot To Postpone Elections

APC Accuses DSS, PDP Of Plot To Postpone Elections

►THE All Progressives Congress, APC, yesterday, alleged that the invasion of its Data Centre by the Department of State Services, DSS, was a plot by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to postpone next month’s general elections.

►Addressing newsmen at the APC Data Centre, Ikeja, Lagos, the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Alhaji Lai Mohammed described the summary report released by the DSS as an embarrassment to all intelligence-gathering organiaations around the world.

The party also picked holes in the alleged confessions by workers arrested from the data centre, saying: “Please recall that in a statement we issued on December 5, 2014, we accused the DSS of resorting to the use of torture to obtain forced confessions from the workers who were arrested during the first raid on our party’s data centre.”

The DSS had released the summary of its findings following a raid on the party’s data centre on 10, Ajibola Street, Ikeja, on November 22, last year, saying that the APC had an “articulated plan to inflate the party’s membership data as well as hack into Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC’s voter registration database through the creation of party membership forms and cards to match INEC’s voters register across the country.’’

But Mohammed noted: “Its immediate response, which was issued on the same day and which got a big play, was to dismiss the findings as hogwash, a great disservice to Nigeria and an embarrassment to all intelligence-gathering organisations around the world. Our stand on the ‘findings’ has not changed.”

According to him, the DSS report is garbage and is not worth the paper on which it is written.

Plot to postpone polls

He said: “We will like to tell all Nigerians that the crap called ‘findings’ is part of the ongoing efforts by the Goodluck Jonathan administration to postpone next month’s general elections. Having seen the handwriting on the wall vis-a-vis the growing rejection of the PDP by Nigerians, the Jonathan administration has gone into a panic mode, while embarking on a plan to postpone the elections.

“Apparently, the thinking at the DSS, which is working in cahoots with the PDP, is that its report that the APC plans to hack into the voters’ registration data base of INEC, will raise doubts about the integrity of the voter’s register to be used for the forthcoming polls, and subsequently force a postponement of the elections since the existing register cannot be used for the polls.

“Unfortunately for DSS and the PDP, this thinking was based on a wrong premise, as we will show shortly, and it has backfired.”

Mohammed explained that “before you say our claim is outlandish, remember that some prominent Nigerians have publicly called for the postponement of the election – which can only benefit the Jonathan administration and delay its impending waterloo at the polls. Place the calls side by side with the apparently doctored outcome of the DSS investigations and the timing of the report’s release, and you will understand where they are coming from.”