APC slams PDP, says members defected because of dictatorship and intimidation
by Peregba Jerry
The ruling All Progressives Congress APC has slammed northern governors within the opposition Peoples Democratic Party PDP for alleging that their former colleagues and National Assembly members who defected to the APC were intimidated and forced to join the party.
APC in a statement by the National Secretary of its Caretaker Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee CECPC, Sen. John James Akpanudoedehe accused the northern PDP governors of being stuck in the inertia caused by the clueless and dictatorial leadership of their tattered party under their National Chairman, Chief Uche Secondus.
APC said the allegation that she is forcing people into her fold is comical, laughable and devoid of truth, noting that “the PDP has conveniently forgotten it’s an ignominious and rejected pastime of muscling the opposition. We will remind them”.
Part of the statement reads; “Nigerians will recall how the PDP government in 2003 muscled and eventually collapsed the main opposition party, Alliance for Democracy (AD) by illegally deploying state machinery aided by security services then at their disposal to capture five of the six states in the Southwest geo-political zone under the control of AD.
“The PDP mastered and weaponised the undemocratic and devious strategy in the well-reported inducement of National Assembly members in the then PDP government’s rejected and failed bid to amend the constitution for tenure extension aka Third Term Agenda.
“From Ekiti, Anambra, Plateau, Oyo and Bayelsa states, democratically-elected governors were unconstitutionally removed from office by the then PDP government through manipulation of state assemblies and other Gestapo tactics. Elected governors were jailed and some were forced into exile.
“Nigerians cannot forget the dangerous ‘do-or-die’ politics the PDP government introduced to the country’s political lexicon and electioneering.
“In 2009, observers dismissed the presidential election declared in highly-controversial circumstances in PDP’s favour as so deeply flawed as not to be credible, a position acknowledged by President Yar’Adua that there were ‘lapses and shortcomings in the elections.
“PDP in its bid to legitimize the flawed 2009 presidential election again muscled and induced the then main opposition, All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) into forming a ‘Government of National Unity’, leading to the ANPP’s fictionalisation and eventual crash.
“In the same period, the PDP literally swallowed the Progressive People’s Alliance (PPA) with the party leadership joining the PDP, furthering its one-party state ambitions.
We wish to make it clear that those who defected to the APC from the dying PDP have done so in recognition and appreciation of the indisputable achievements of President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration. They are coming in droves to be part of the APC’s continuing drive to improve the wellbeing of all Nigerians in all parts of the country.
“While members of the Northern PDP Governors’ Forum are stuck in the inertia caused by the clueless and dictatorial leadership of their tattered party, governors elected on the platform of the APC across the country are busy providing infrastructure, expanding educational and economic opportunities in line with our party manifesto.
“President Buhari’s multi-sectoral achievements are the unique selling points attracting en masse well-meaning Nigerians including erstwhile PDP Governors to the APC as well as cross-partisan support for this administration’s many pro-people social interventions is particularly targeting the poor.
“For a political party that was overwhelmingly rejected by Nigerians in 2015 and 2019, the PDP’s failure to sincerely beg Nigerians to forgive its atrocities during its 16 wasted years and provide credible opposition has undoubtedly caused its irreversible descent into the abyss”.
