The Lagos State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) counterpart have sharply disagreed over the latter’s call on security agencies in the country, especially the State Security Service (SSS), to immediately arrest former Governor of Lagos State and APC National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, for calling for the roasting of those who would rig the coming gubernatorial election in Ekiti and Osun states.

In a statement issued yesterday and signed by its publicity secretary, Taofik Gani, PDP had warned that unless Tinubu is arrested and made to explain details of his utterances, the security agencies would be seen as either compromised or docile and portends great danger for the polity.

“Bola Tinubu had stated publicly that in the coming elections at Ekiti and Osun states, anyone who attempts to rig will be murdered and roasted. The statement was made at LAUTECH, Ogbomosho, during the investiture of the APC National leader as Chancellor of the higher institution,” PDP said.

Firing back today via a release signed by its Publicity Secretary, Joe Igbokwe, Lagos APC wondered why “PDP always grows paranoid whenever the issue of punishment for election riggers crops up.”

According to APC, “What Lagos PDP is publicising is the readiness of the party to continue to tow the line of electoral criminality through shamelessly stealing every election and subjecting the country to the scourge of corrupt, unaccountable, unelected leadership.”

Continuing, the party said: “From its childish reaction to Asiwaju’s warning, it is apparent that PDP as professional shameless vote robbers are getting paranoid that any action against election riggers is an action against it. It is apparent that by this impudent way to offer safe ground for election riggers, Lagos PDP and indeed the entire PDP is planning to continue stealing election mandates and employ same to wreck the country the same way it had been doing for the past 15 years but we warn them that their days are over.

“We are not surprised that it is the PDP that has come in defence of election rigging when we know the history of the party and when its name has become synonymous with fraud, not only in elections but in every facet of life. That what calls itself a state chapter of a party that has been ruling the country for the past fifteen years can come out and make such a specious endorsement of election rigging, as the call for Asiwaju’s arrest for warning against election rigging portends, shows that Nigerians have not witnessed the last of PDP’s bizarre electoral frauds, which is the foundation upon which the PDP rests. We therefore warn Nigerians to be on their guards as the Ekiti and Osun governorship elections approach and as the critical 2015 election draws nearer.

“Nigerians do not have to look far to know the tragedy electoral fraud the PDP is stoically defending has done to the country. The pallid and prostrate country we have today with wrecked infrastructures, gargantuan corruption, endless mass slaughtering of citizens, governmental incompetence and embarrassing cluelessness, general state of insecurity, poverty, fear, hopelessness, despair, hunger, unemployment and disillusionment are all products of electoral fraud, the type Asiwaju is warning against and the type the jokers in Lagos PDP are striving so hard to defend because they have no life outside stealing mandates of other Nigerians for ulterior purposes. Is it strange that Lagos PDP sees the arrest of whoever speaks out against election rigging as its own life wire, having lost deposit with the people for the fifteen horrible years they have supervised the demolition of the country?

“It is quite ridiculous, in league with the spate of incoherent and infantile statements that ooze from the dwindling cult that calls itself Lagos PDP that the party will try to tag Asiwaju’s timely warning against election rigging as capable of worsening the security crisis it presides over in the country. Does the party need any star gazer to tell it that the problem of insecurity among other myriads of problems that have overwhelmed Nigeria today, is as a result of the shameless and criminal manner the PDP manipulates elections for the past fifteen years to throw up incompetent, hugely compromised leaders that surreptitiously divide Nigerians along religious and ethnic lines for their selfish interests? Lagos PDP is trying desperately to criminalise the timely warning of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu so as to protect a more heinous and very criminal act of election rigging, which is the main reason Nigeria has been hobbled today. We warn the party that Nigerians are ever ready to arrest its shameless thirst for stolen and diverted mandates and whoever tries to steal the mandate of the people should be roasted to serve as a deterrent to other electoral cheats.

“We want to join our voices with the inimitable Asiwaju to warn that those who think Nigerians will continue to tolerate their wholesome rigging of elections for purposes of self enrichment and mass pauperisation, as the PDP has done in the past fifteen years will either jettison that criminal intent or face the wrath of the people. Whoever rigs should face the wrath of the people and we feel that if PDP has no intent to rig, it should join this crusade to ensure that Nigeria has a credible leadership selection process to give it the right leaders to lead the recovery process from the past fifteen years of locusts. Whoever subverts this must be treated as a hoodlum, a criminal and coup plotter and should be roasted. Calling for the arrest of whoever goes after an election rigger is a criminal way of striving to ensure that the country remains perpetually submerged to the evil of election rigging, the only hope the jesters in Lagos PDP cling to access power.”

•Photo shows Asiwaju Tinubu.

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