The People’s Democratic Party, PDP, in Ebonyi State, the All Progressives Congress, APC, and the state government are currently at logger heads over alleged procurement of Permanent Voter Cards, PVCs, to rig the 2027 general elections.
While the PDP accused the APC and the state government of fabricating allegations that its members are engaged in illegal procurement of PVCs as an excuse to intimidate, harass, arrest, and incarcerate party members and officials, the APC and the the government on the other hand insist the allegations are baseless and the last kick of a dying horse.
Addressing journalists in Abakaliki, the state capital, Publicity Secretary of PDP, Darlington Onwe, alleged calculated plot by the state government and APC to frame, harass and criminalise members of the party in the state.
“This latest manoeuvre comes barely months after the Governor publicly vowed to “consume” the PDP and opposition parties in Ebonyi State ahead of the 2027 general election—a statement our Party had already petitioned relevant institutions over and condemned as reckless and unbecoming of a serving Chief Executive sworn to protect, and not persecute, the citizens of the State, including members of opposition parties, the party said.
“It is therefore our considered position that this new plot is a desperate response to the Governor’s declining popularity and the PDP’s growing influence across the state, rather than any genuine electoral infraction on the part of our members.
“Our Party is a law-abiding political organisation, and at no time has it contemplated, authorised, or condoned any conduct capable of violating the Electoral Act 2026, the guidelines of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, or any other extant law of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“We, therefore, reject in its entirety, any attempt to associate our members with unlawful dealings in PVCs, and we hold that this narrative is being manufactured solely to justify a pre-planned campaign of arrests and intimidation against our party faithful.
“Accordingly, we wish to place on record that the actions being contemplated by the Ebonyi State Government and the ruling APC, if allowed to proceed, would constitute a grave violation of fundamental constitutional rights and international legal conventions.
“Specifically, this planned repression directly assaults the rights to personal liberty, freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, association, and free movement guaranteed under Sections 35, 39, 40, and 41 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended), alongside Section 222 and related provisions of the Constitution and the Electoral Act 2026 governing lawful political activities and due process.
“Furthermore, it breaches Nigeria’s binding international obligations under the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Articles 6, 9, 10, and 13), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (Articles 9, 19, 21, 22, and 25), the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Articles 9, 19, and 20), the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Defenders (1998), and ECOWAS Protocol A/SP1/12/01 on Democracy and Good Governance, which explicitly mandates Member States to safeguard political pluralism and protect opposition parties from state-sponsored persecution.
“Consequently, any attempt to weaponise state security architecture to entrap, arrest, or detain PDP members on manufactured allegations would amount to an assault on these instruments and on the democratic character of the Nigerian State”, he said
Onwe further alleged that on a previous occasion, political thugs were mobilised and deployed to breach a PDP gathering and unleash mayhem on journalists and pressmen covering the event at Ikwuator, Idembia, in Ezza South Local Government Area, during a rally organised to receive a defector, a former APC member, into the PDP.
He said about ten journalists of the Correspondents’ Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), travelling in a clearly branded vehicle to cover the event, were reportedly set upon by a mob of suspected political thugs, numbering more than fifty and allegedly led by a lawyer, who smashed the vehicle with stones and other objects and searched for fuel to set it ablaze before the driver escaped.
At least ten PDP supporters were also injured in the same assault and had to receive hospital treatment, he lamented.
“The Ebonyi State chapter of the NUJ subsequently condemned the attack as barbaric and demanded that security agencies identify and prosecute those responsible, describing the safety of journalists as critical to the survival of democracy”, Onwe stated.
Reacting to the allegations against the state government, Special Assistant to Governor Francis Nwifuru, on Inter-Party Affairs, Sunday Nwambam described them as spurious and unfounded and challenged PDP to back the allegations with facts.
He said Governor Francis Nwifuru is among those who believe that party pluralism should not be sacrificed on the altar of ones ambition hence his administration’s resolve and commitment to sustain an enabling environment for all parties to thrive in the state since his assumption of duty.
He averred that the PDP was playing infantile politics and flying a kite with allegations as a prelude to launch perfected scheme to buy PVCs ahead of the general election.
“While I am still trying to know the faction Prince Darlington represents, let me categorically clarify that the allegation of plotting to frame up, arrest and detain some members of the PDP over alleged dealing in Permanent Voters Cards of for any other reasons is false, misleading, baseless and reflective of the last kicks of a dying horse.
2027 Polls: PDP, APC bicker over alleged procurement of PVCs to rig elections