The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has mocked the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), saying the leading opposition party has become “disillusioned” by the string of election victories recorded by the ruling party, especially the 2019 Presidential Election, majority governorship wins, National Assembly seats and other governorship elections in Ekiti, Osun, Kano, Kogi and Bayelsa states.
Malam Lanre Issa-Onilu, the APC National Publicity Secretary, in a release issued on Tuesday, said the PDP had shown “crass and shocking” incapacity to perform the role of opposition.
Issa-Onilu said the APC, which believes in democracy and progressive politics, was worried by the “obvious vacuum” that the PDP had created.
The APC said the PDP had failed to provide “rigorous and intelligent interrogation” of the current administration’s policies and programmes apart from engaging in idle chatter, propagation of fake news, post-election delusions and other unpatriotic conducts, stating such move was dangerous for our democracy.
He said the country deserved a strong and vibrant opposition to play its conventional role in the polity and to deepen democracy.
The APC challenged other registered political parties to step up and perform the crucial opposition role the PDP has failed to play.
“In fact, Prince Uche Secondus, PDP’s National Chairman on Monday lamented that it would be difficult for the PDP to participate in future elections in the country.
“This is exactly our fear. Is this not a confirmation of APC’s earlier position that Nigeria was fast becoming a one-party State as a result of the rudderless and soulless PDP, Nigeria’s supposed main opposition party?” Issa-Onilu asked.
The APC dismissed the PDP’s allegation that it connived with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to record the string of election victories in the recent elections.
“The same PDP has maintained a graveyard silence over the election robberies in Zamfara and Rivers states. The APC was punished for allegedly not conducting proper primaries in Zamfara State, while PDP got rewarded in Sokoto and Kano for not conducting any primaries at all.
“In Osun, Ekiti and Bayelsa states, why will the APC ever contemplate ‘conniving’ with INEC in elections where voters had rejected the PDP and their candidates long before the election day?
“In the case of Kogi State, we challenge the PDP to name one of its politicians who had the status and goodwill to give PDP the imagined votes they are now claiming, post election.
“The Kogi electorate ignored the PDP’s propaganda and clannish campaigns to re-elect the APC candidate, Governor Yahaya Bello. The Kogi West Senatorial rerun gave the electorate an opportunity to reclaim their earlier stolen mandate. They were decisive in kicking out a joke and replacing him with APC Senator-elect, Smart Adeyemi,” the statement added.
“We will continue to check and frustrate PDP’s inglorious practices of massive thumb printing, ballot box snatching, vote buying, thuggery, using state institutions, particularly INEC, the judiciary and security agencies to manipulate the electioneering process,” the APC added.
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