Tinubu assures on ACN's victoryAHEAD of the December 3, 2011, governorship election in Kogi State, the Yomi Awoniyi Campaign Organisation of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday refuted the allegations by the National Chairman of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Chief Bisi Akande, that the ruling PDP in the state had stockpiled arms and Army uniforms for the purpose of rigging the election in its favour. Meanwhile, former Lagos State governor, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, yesterday expressed confidence that the ACN would win in the forthcoming governorship election in Kogi State, if devoid of fraud. He, however, expressed faith in the Prof. Attahiru Jega-led Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). Fielding questions from journalists at the Presidential Lounge of Murtala Muhammed Airport yesterday in Lagos, Tinubu said: 'We have good chances of winning if the election is free and fair; if it is devoid of violence and other malpractices'. The campaign group described the allegations as baseless, laced with falsehood and an attempt by the ACN 'to disguise its nefarious activities designed to cause mayhem and confusion during and after the election'. Citing the strength of the PDP in the state where it controlled all the elective seats in the state and National Assembly with the exception of two seats controlled by the ACN, it described the allegations as the latest of the opposition party's stock in trade to always cry wolf where there is none. The statement signed by Mr. Oshiomieh Abu Michael of the Media Committee of the Wada/Awoniyi Campaign Organisation copied The Guardian in Lokoja, Kogi State capital, said: 'We are mostly concerned when elder statesmen engage in falsehood.The baseless claims, all in the name of politics, only show how their depth, morality and the content of their character have plummeted. For the avoidance of doubt, the ACN is only crying wolf all in an attempt to disguise its nefarious activities designed to cause mayhem and confusion during and after the election'. 'We are aware that the ACN recently sent 15 18-seater buses filled with cultists from an ACN-controlled state to hold discussion with its Kogi chapter on plans to snatch ballot boxes and perpetuate all manner of electoral malpractices. A serving ACN governor was dispatched to Kogi to train agents on how to compromise the voting process to the benefit of his party'. Saying the ACN has no viable structures on the ground in the state, the statement recalled that ACN only has a seat in the state and National Assembly while all other elective offices in the state in the past eight years have been PDP-controlled and accused ACN leaders of trying to reap where they did not sow. According to the statement, the opposition ACN had perpetrated all manner of electoral fraud, including printed PDP T-shirts to be worn by its members and to be video recorded on election day, which it intended to present in court as evidence of PDP misdeeds. On whether the power of incumbency will not affect the party in Kogi, Tinubu said: 'There is nothing like the power of incumbency, where was the power of incumbency in Ogun, where was the power of incumbency in Ekiti, where was the power of incumbency in Oyo' Tinubu, who also said the ACN would make inroad into Bayelsa State given the crisis in the PDP, stated that the only disappointing thing is the fact that the PDP could not obey the court order. According to him, 'If you are a ruling party in this country and you are talking about the rule of law, you should be a role model, you should show leadership and some degree of compliance'.
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