The Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP), has accused the federal government of planning to clamp down on media houses and their reporters during tomorrow Saturday February 16th presidential election.
Spokesman of the coalition, Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere made the allegation in a statement released last night. Ikenga claimed the plan is to ensure that the media houses do not have the opportunity of alerting Nigerians on the various irregularities being allegedly planned during the presidential and National Assembly elections in favour of the candidates of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) across the country.
He noted that the media organisations listed for attack are the African Independent Television (AIT), Silverbird Television, Arise Television, Raypower FM, and 15 other radio stations.
“The plan is to jam and destroy transmitting equipment of these media organisations on election day. The strategy also includes indiscriminate arrest and detention of reporters and cameramen of these stations, while their working tools will be confiscated and destroyed.
The opposition parties have credible information on the move by the APC working through the NSA and the elder brother of Governor Nasir el-Rufai, named Bashir el-Rufai, who is the Director of IHS Towers, a major base station services provider for telecom companies to disconnect the service providers in targeted areas under the guise of debt recovery for unpaid services rendered to the telecommunication companies.
“They want to keep the whole country in darkness, so as to stop citizens from tweeting, blogging, and giving live updates on what is going on in every centre, so that they will be able to carry out their rigging plan. They don’t want the people’s voice to be heard because they have already concluded their evil plot to ensure that the election is not free and fair,” CUPP alleged.
The coalition called on all stakeholders, including Nigeria’s international friends, to be aware of this plan which has been perfected by the Federal government.
“We are watching them and we shall continue to expose their evil plans for the world to see and know,” he added
In a swift reaction, the Director, Strategic Communications of APC campaign, Festus Keyamo, in a statement released last night, said such a plot is nothing but a figment of the imagination of the PDP.
“Whilst the story is full of half-truths and outright lies, the portion that concerns us at the Campaign Council is the allegation that the networks would be jammed on Saturday by the said Israeli company. This is nothing but a figment of the imagination of the PDP, the obvious sponsors of the story.
We have warned a few days ago of a series of fake news lined up by the PDP and Atiku’s campaign team in the last days leading up to the elections. This is obviously one of them.”