The All Progressives Congress in Benue State has dismissed allegations of involvement in the purchase of Permanent Voters’ Cards ahead of the 2019 general elections.
The APC said that allegations leveled against it by some Peoples Democratic Party chieftains in the state were untrue and unfounded.
As far as we’re concerned, the 2019 election in Benue is a forgone conclusion
The Chairman of the APC in Benue State, Comrade Abba Yaro, said that the party did not need to engage in the buying of PVCs to win the next year’s elections in the state.
Speaking with our correspondent on Thursday in Makurdi, the state capital, Comrade Yaro, said that the PDP in the state was only being hysterical and raising a false alarm to distract the attention of the people of the state from what it had planned to do during the 2019 polls.
He stressed that the allegations of PVC-buying leveled against the APC were unfounded and could not be substantiated as it lacked any iota of truth.
Yaro boasted that the indications were clear that whatever happened, the APC would totally defeat the PDP in the state in the 2019 elections.
The APC chairman added that having been faced with the reality of its imminent defeat in next year’s polls, the PDP decided to begin to point accusing fingers over issues that were non-existent, unreal and untrue.
“They already know what the outcome of the result of the 2019 elections will be, even though the D-day is still far. They have already envisaged the likelihood of their defeat in the outcome; that is why they have begun to trade accusations and point accusing fingers on others,” the Benue APC chairman said.
Yaro argued that the APC remain well grounded in the state, despite the recent defection of Governor Samuel Ortom and his supporters to the opposition PDP.
He stressed that the APC supporters in the state remained undaunted by Governor Ortom’s defection, adding that the party in the state would keep waxing stronger.
The APC chairman also expressed optimism that if the election was held now, his party would carry the day.
“Therefore, we are not afraid of anyone cross-carpeting or defecting to whichever party in the state,”
he said.
But the Benue State Chairman of the PDP, Mr. John Ngbede, assured that his party had already won the 2019 elections in the state, irrespective of the alleged buying of PVCs by the APC.
Ngbede said that the alleged purchase of PVCs by the APC would not stop PDP members gunning for elective offices in the 2019 polls from emerging victorious.
“As far as we are concerned, the 2019 general elections in the state is a forgone conclusion and all our members standing elective offices would be delivered intact after the polls,” he
said.
The PDP chairman, who is a former commissioner for water resources and environment under the immediate past administration in the state, further said that the APC was just being jittery because of the population of the supporters and renewed strength of the PDP in the state.
He said with the defection of virtually all the political heavyweights in the state to the PDP, it would be a herculean task and wishful thinking for the APC to win next year’s polls in the state.
“Everybody who matters in the politics of Benue State is in the PDP now. That tells you how well and firmly the party has become rooted in the state. Therefore, where can any other party in the state secure the votes to defeat us at the polls,” Ngbede
said.
