The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Ebonyi State, on Thursday, accused the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, of launching an attack on its members who testified as witnesses against the APC before the Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Abuja.
The Caretaker Committee Chairman of the PDP in the State, Augustine Nwazunku, alleged that the PDP witnesses who testified before the election Tribunal at Abuja were attacked on return to their respective homes by suspected APC hitmen. Nwazunku made this known in a statement signed and issued to newsmen in Abakaliki, capital of Ebonyi State, on Thursday.
The statement alleged, “Some were brutally attacked by APC hired thugs, with their families, essentially chased out of their homes while business interests of our members’ farm were poisoned with yet to be verified chemical.
Over twenty thousand fish fingerlings were physically damaged in some of the episodes of attacks,” the PDP alleged. The Party alleged that APC Chieftains and leaders had been going around communities and local governments to threaten PDP faithful preparing to go to testify as witnesses before the Tribunal.
“The APC government has threatened to deal with any Ebonyi citizen seen to be hob-nabbing with the members of PDP in Ebonyi State,” the statement added. In a reaction, the State Chairman of the APC, Stanley Okoro-Emegha, described the allegations as unfounded and challenged the PDP to bring up evidence of the alleged attacks on its members before the public.
Okoro-Emegha said the APC-led government of Ebonyi State is too busy with governance to be distracted by any person or group and urged the PDP to put their house in order and desist from making wide allegations.