The Presidential Campaign Council of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was all fury yesterday after the authorities of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) allegedly denied it the use of its facilities for a rally to be addressed by its presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.
They claimed to have booked and paid for the use of the Old Parade Ground at Garki, Abuja, a few days ago, only for the FCT management to deny it access at the last minute.
The party said the FCT management informed it 24 hours to the event that the facility could no longer be available.
The National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, blamed President Muhammadu Buhari for engineering the cancellation of the booking.
Ologbondiyan said the action signified a morbid fear of the rising profile of the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, by Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Ologbondiyan warned that any further attack on PDP campaign will attract very dire response from Nigerians, who, he said, look up to Atiku to salvage the nation from the social, economic and political despondency, which he said President Buhari has plunged the country into.
“From reports reaching us, it is not also out of place for the Buhari Presidency and the APC to use this measure to test the will of Nigerians as precursor to their rigging plots.
“We want to place on record, once again, that any attempt to rig the February 16 election will be vehemently resisted by Nigerians, across board, who have reached a consensus to rescue their nation from the stranglehold of the Buhari Presidency.
“In any case, let it be known to President Buhari and the APC that the PDP and the people’s candidate will definitely hold our presidential mega rally in Abuja irrespective of any further encumbrance they may attempt to foist.â€
