By Deborah Hassan
The All Progressives Congress (APC) has disclosed the recent defection of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the ruling party is due to the failure of its leaders to manage its affairs.
It also took a swipe at former Vice President of Nigeria and presidential flagbearer of the PDP in the last election, Atiku Abubakar, who it accused of starting an early campaign to clinch the PDP again in 2023 in order to sell off the assets of Nigeria.
A press statement issued on Wednesday by the Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Yekini Nabena, said the gale of cross-carpeting did not come as a surprise to them.
He said, “For a party unable to run its Secretariat, pay staff salaries and its leadership grappling with a crisis of confidence, it will be unfair to expect its progressive-minded members to remain in the PDP which has failed woefully as the supposed ‘main’ opposition party in Nigeria.”
In apparent mockery of the decreasing numbers of PDP members, especially in the National Assembly, the party stated, “It is disheartening that the PDP is pushing Nigeria into a largely one-party state. As a party that believes in democracy and progressive politics, the APC does not subscribe to this. We, therefore, challenge other opposition political parties to take the place of the PDP because even as the governing party, we recognize the importance of rigorous and intelligent interrogation of our policies and programmes by the opposition which the PDP has woefully failed to do.”
“‘Recall that APC recently welcomed the Governor of Ebonyi State, David Nweze Umahi and Senator representing Adamawa North Senatorial District, Elisha Abbo. This is in addition to earlier return of many prominent party members and leaders including former PDP national chairman, Senator Barnabas Gemade; former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara, Dr. Alex Otti, among others,” Naben said.
The spokesman said all new and returning entrants who have come to work with the President Muhammadu Buhari APC-led administration to improve the lives of Nigerians and overall better of Nigeria are welcome, while expressing great appreciation for the “important work the APC Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) under the Chairmanship of Governor Mai Mala Buni is doing to reposition the party by accommodating all interests and ensuring peace, unity, fairness, equity, justice and inclusion and internal democracy in our great party.”
The statement noted that Governor Buni-led CECPC is working assiduously and has achieved great success in ensuring that the party is repositioned, united and conducts the planned membership registration, update and revalidation exercise to produce a clean, credible and authentic national membership register ahead of the planned National Convention.
Also in the statement, Nabena said the PDP had resumed its Dubai meetings where former Vice President and presidential candidate of the PDP in the last election, Atiku Abubakar, is plotting his 2023 ambitions.
“‘For now, the PDP and Alh. Atiku Abubakar, who has began early 2023 campaign on the PDP’s presidential candidature he is poised to purchase, are engrossed with their Dubai meetings to plot their hallucinatory return to ensure their bid to selloff the remainder of our national assets. Nigerians are wiser.”