The national leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has challenged the All Progressives Congress, APC, to a debate where the subject matter would centre on the achievements of President Goodluck Jonathan led government, asserting that the nation’s main opposition party has no meaningful programme for Nigeria.
The leadership of the party also stressed that all already scheduled elections for next year must hold in the crisis-ridden North-East States in 2015 notwithstanding the security challenges faced by the Zone. It added that had governors of affected states woken up to the task of addressing the challenge of insurgency, the problem would not have got to this magnitude.
Disclosing this yesterday on Kiss FM 99.9 in a programme monitored by DAILY POST in Abuja, the National Publicity Secretary of PDP, Chief Olisa Metuh, stressed that there was no reason why the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, will not conduct elections in these areas as being agitated in some quarters.
His words, “after all these states which are being controlled by the opposition had successfully conducted Council elections at the peak of insurgents while bye-elections to the state and National Assemblies were held during the period, so, what are they saying?
“If the State Governors in the affected states have been alive to their responsibilities as being done by the PDP controlled Federal Government, the situation would have been brought under control, rather they are busy attacking the President and our Party as responsible for the insecurity and that elections will not hold in the affected states, elections must hold and PDP will spring surprises.
“That is a shallow and callous thinking from the opposition, how can the President be sponsoring crisis in a country he is presiding, even the President made it cleared on several occasions that his presidential does not deserve the blood of any Nigeria, President Goodluck Jonathan is a refined gentle man who will never have such a sinister motive against anybody or his father land.
“What is regrettable is that those leading members of the main opposition, the All Progressives Congress, APC, that are making unguarded utterances against the President and the PDP were former members of our party who got to where they are today on our platform before they defected, one of them even said that if APC did not win the 2015 Presidential election, they will not go to court but will go and form a parallel government.
“We have made our position known in our Press statement of yesterday that enough is enough, PDP will no longer tolerate such barbaric attacks again, if any one of them tries again, we will go out in full swing and expose such a character,” he assured.
As regards the defection of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Metuh noted that the position of the party was informed by morality, integrity and a constitutional matter for Nigerians to decide, noting that the matter was already before the Court.
The PDP mouthpiece went on to dismiss APC’s allegation that the Police personnel aided thugs to invade the National Assembly last week to harass its lawmakers and urged members of the public to wait for the outcome of the police investigation into the alleged invasion.
Hear him, “What are they trying to say again? National Assembly members belong to different political parties and how can one identify their political parties? To the best of my knowledge, they don’t wear uniforms and how did APC come to a conclusion that their members were the target?
“APC is not a better opposition we need in the country, it is out to derail our growing democracy. We have said before and we are saying it again and we will continue to say it,” he stated, appealing to Nigerians to disregard all alleged propaganda and blackmail of the APC.
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