The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, has played down the possibility of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) causing upset in the 2019 general elections.
He also said the party gave the APC victory in 2015, saying “If PDP had fully implemented its manifesto in the 16 years that it was in power, Nigerians would not have been attracted to the APC promise of change in 2015”.
Oyegun, who spoke in reaction to the Supreme Court verdict that declared Ahmed Makarfi the national chairman of the PDP, warned the opposition not to think it had arrived.
“As the chairman of the APC, I welcome the final resolution of the PDP leadership tussles by the Supreme Court last week.
“As a democrat and a leading politician, it is my desire to see restoration of peace in all the political parties in the country”, he told Vanguard.
“If the parties are in disarray, they will not play their fundamental roles as strong oppositions. I want to put it clearly on record that APC has never been part of the PDP leadership crises.
“Sincerely, we are happy that as a political party, the PDP has resolved its problems. We don’t want and will never encourage dictatorship. PDP crisis and the resolution of the bickering is the least of APC’s concerns”, he added.
On PDP’s boast of resurgence in 2019, Oyegun advised those basking in such euphoria to perish such thought.
“If PDP could not pose any threat to APC while in power at the federal level, when Nigerians voted them out after realising how bad they were, is it now that APC is in power that PDP will be a threat?
“May be I should add by way of emphasis that we are not part of PDP’s problems. In the contrary, we are rather happy that they have resolved the crisis but let me emphasise that PDP is not in any way a threat to APC.
“As the National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, rightly pointed out in the recent press release, we recently read Senator Makarfi announcing rather exuberantly that his victory at the court meant that PDP was ready to return to power.
“Makarfi’s statement was part of the excitement that followed the favourable court ruling. It appears however that the outcome of last week’s judgement is beginning to set them on a different course.
“We are however delighted that the PDP is beginning to talk about holding the APC accountable for the promises in our manifesto. The exact problem with the PDP as currently constituted is that there are only a few people left in the party whose faces do not represent the face of corruption.”
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