Plot to sabotage polls worries CSOs, ask Buhari to wade in

A coalition of Civil Society Organisations, Alliance for Democratic Sustenance (ADS), says they are worried over clandestine plots by some individuals to derail the conduct of the coming general elections.

The societies comprising of 19 pro-democracy organisations in a statement said their call became imperative following schemes by some unscrupulous elements to impede the general elections because they lost out during the last party primaries.

The organizations therefore called on President Muhammadu Buhari to wade in by calling on state apparatus to live up to their constitutional responsibility aimed at ensuring the smooth conduct of the elections next month.

The statement signed by the convener, Mallam Yusuf Bulama, explained that the arrow heads of the unfolding plot are planning to influence the polls for their preferred candidate and should that fails an obnoxious agenda in collaboration with some state actors will be deployed.

Part of the statement said: “We have impeccable information from highly placed and reliable sources of a clandestine mobes by some powerful and highly placed persons aimed at truncating the democratic transition to another democratically elected government in the country.

“Our findings indicate that the meeting exhaustively deliberated on the transition and general elections.

“It considered plans is to infiltrate INEC and get wiling tools who will assist them carry out their heinous plans. The plan indicates that a certain top military personnel has been contacted by these elements in their quest to frustrate the transition.

“The nocturnal meeting deliberated on every possible means to frustrate the elections and cause confusion in the polity that will create room for their plans to hijack the system. The plan is to make sure elections do not hold or are not successful and cause a constitutional crisis.”