Presidency and PDP in war over leaked Edo arrest video

Nigeria’s major opposition party, Peoples Democratic Party Campaign Council for the Edo State Governorship Election has raised the alarm over an alleged plot by the All Progressives Congress-led Federal Government to arrest its supporters on trumped-up charges.

The National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Kola Ologbondiyan, raised the alarm at a press conference in Abuja, on Tuesday.

The PDP spokesman explained that the APC administration owes Nigerians an explanation on the trending video showing the sacked APC National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, and the Chief of Staff to the President, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari, at the Presidential Villa, discussing the arrest of certain individuals, ahead of the September 19 governorship election.

Ologbondiyan said “Nigerians were alarmed by the video in which Oshiomhole was seen emphatically urging the Chief of Staff to Mr President on the need to clampdown on certain unnamed Nigerians to achieve political suppression and submission ahead of the Edo election.

“Our national campaign holds that the presence and involvement of the Chief of Staff to the President and the fact that the discussion held within the precincts of the Presidential Villa, have made the Presidency complicit and place a huge burden on President Muhammadu Buhari.

However, The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, described the trending video as “an ingenious patchwork of mischief.”

Shehu said this in a Tuesday statement that the video was extracted from an innocent conversation focused on the emerging incidents of violence in the run up to the election.

He said the President did not support violence of any sort and its propagators would be brought to justice.