The main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) made a sensational claim on 18 November that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has earmarked several of its political leaders for assassination. But as Nigeria Politics & Security outlines, these wild suggestions can be seen as an attempt to gain some political points off the ruling APC, at a time when the PDP is facing a struggle to win the Kogi State gubernatorial election.

The claims followed the allegation by Uche Anichukwu, the media aid to Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, that Ekweremadu was the target of a failed assassination attempt on 17 November. And the PDP now claims it has information that the APC is planning to assassinate the deputy Senate president, PDP leaders including the acting chairman of the PDP Board of Trustees, Haliru Bello, acting national chairman, Uche Secondus, the national secretary, Adewale Oladipo, members of the National Working Committee, and the Senate and House of Representatives minority leaders, Godswill Akpabio and Leo Ogoh, among others.

It is unlikely that the PDP has any credible information at its disposal to back the claims, instead using the accusations to score political points and to brand the APC as a ‘killer’ party. PDP spokesperson Olisa Metuh also claimed that the ruling APC was intimidating some of its members to defect to the ruling party.

The PDP’s desperate cries came when they were on the verge of losing yet another state to the APC, in the first major election to be conducted under the Buhari presidency. The Kogi State gubernatorial election, which was held on 21 November, is the first to be overseen by the new Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) chairman, Mahmood Yakubu.

INEC declared the results inconclusive on 22 November due to the cancellation of the vote in about 91 polling units. The APC candidate Abubakar Audu, was leading the PDP candidate, Idris Wada (who is the incumbent) by about 41,000 votes at the time. Sadly, Audu collapsed and died at about the time the election was being declared inconclusive, causing a constitutional crisis, as there is no clear provision in Nigeria’s electoral act to deal with the situation where a governorship candidate dies when on the verge of winning a vote. Legal experts have suggested that Minister of Justice Malami may have to seek the intervention of the Supreme Court to resolve the current uncertainty.

The most likely outcome is the conduct of fresh elections, or the continuation of the current election with Audu’s running mate stepping up to take over his mandate. Legal experts agree that the legal situation on the way forward is quite complex, with no certain outcome. However, the sudden death of the popular APC candidate may have thrown a lifeline to the PDP, especially if a fresh vote is conducted.

This article was taken from Nigeria Politics & Security.