24 hours after convention: PDP, APC in fiery exchanges

Twenty-four hours after the national convention of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), its new leadership engaged the  All Progressives Congress (APC) leadership over party affairs and governance in the country.

Firing the first salvo, the APC, speaking through its National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, had, while appraising the outcome of the PDP convention, claimed that the erstwhile ruling party had been reduced to a regional political party.

The APC also  claimed that the South-West geopolitical zone was denied the exalted office of national chairman of the main opposition party because the zone refused to vote for the latter’s presidential candidate in the 2015 general election, Dr Goodluck Jonathan.

But in his first assignment on the job, the new National Publicity Secretary of PDP, Mr Kola Ologbondiyan, alleged that the APC failed in its plot to scuttle the just concluded national convention of the party and, thereby, resorted to unwarranted attacks because it was jittery.

The APC had urged aggrieved members of the PDP, who believed they could pass what it called the ruling party’s integrity test, to abandon the main opposition party for the APC.

“In reacting to revelations of how money-for-votes and systematic rigging was brazenly perpetuated during the national convention of the PDP, the APC is mindful of the popular axiom ‘A leopard cannot change its spot’.

“The abnormalities that trailed the PDP national convention have further exposed the PDP as a party not ready and willing to change.

“Indeed, the PDP has once again displayed itself to the generality of Nigerians that it is a party with corruption deeply rooted in its DNA.

“Again, it is tragic that the PDP which used to pride itself as ‘the biggest political party in Africa’ has now been reduced to a regional party. By frustrating the South-West chairmanship candidates, it is unfortunate that the PDP has decided to punish the South-West for not voting for the party in 2015.

“We urge members of the PDP that can pass the integrity test to join the APC so that we can together bring about the much-needed change the country deserves,” Abdullahi had stated in his statement.

Reacting, Ologbodiyan, in his first ever statement for PDP, said the APC’s criticism of the PDP’s convention was laughable, because the ruling party had been unable to manage both its own affairs and that of the country.

The statement said it was disgusting that the criticism of the PDP’s convention was coming from APC, which had not been able to conduct meetings, congresses and convention in the last three years, in violation of its own constitution.

“Our attention has been drawn to a statement credited to the spokesman of the APC, Mallam Bolaji Abdulahi, wherein he criticised the conduct of the elective national convention of our great party, the PDP.

“It is, indeed, laughable that the APC, which has roundly failed in not only managing the affairs of the country, but also its own internal issues, would recourse to panic mode just because the PDP has succeeded in uniting its fronts by conducting of a very credible elective national convention.

“We were very much aware of the plots by the APC to scuttle the convention and, failing, it has resorted to a failed attempt to discredit an elective convention adjudged as creditable, novel and laudable by political stakeholders and lovers of democracy across the nation.

“This unwarranted attack is only symptomatic of a party that has lost control and only clutching on straws for survival, having been rejected outright by Nigerians.

“Is it not disgusting, reprehensible and embarrassing that the APC that has repeatedly failed to hold meetings, congresses and convention in the last three years and has flagrantly continued to violate its own constitution is questioning our party’s rights to perform her legitimate and constitutional obligation?

“Perhaps APC leaders have never read Article 25 (A)(i) of their party’s constitution which stipulates that ‘the National Convention of the party (APC) shall be held once in two years at a date, venue and time to be recommended by the National Working Committee (NWC) and approved by the National Executive Committee (NEC), subject to the giving of the statutory notices to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and at least 14 days notice given to members eligible to attend.’

“Which impunity could be higher than APC violating its constitution?

“It is strange that APC could be moralising on the principles of social justice whereas its actions against Nigerians are a complete departure from the norms.

“It is important for this spokesman of a failed party and his pack of incompetent members to reminisce on the needless pains and suffering they have inflicted on Nigerians rather than being jittery over the successful outcome of the PDP’s elective national convention.

“Nigerians have come to discover that APC is a fraud, an organisation of deceitful characters who have failed to keep a single of its countless promises made to the citizens.

“It is no longer news that the nation is drifting under APC and the PDP has come to the rescue.

“We must, therefore, remind the APC that the era of deceit, trickery and scaremongering, which has been the hallmarks of their government, is gone and Nigerians are just waiting to kick them out come 2019.”

 

APC members should point leprous fingers at themselves —Jonathan’s aide

Also reacting, aide to former President Jonathan, Reno Omokri, said Abdullahi, the APC spokeman,”is, himself, a living proof of what he says cannot happen. And it is not only him. 50 per cent of APC are likewise proof of that.”

He was reacting to Abdullahi’s statement wherein he referred to PDP members as “a leopard that cannot change its spot.”

According to Omokri, “to address the specific charges in Abdullahi’s statement, claiming the media reported that money was paid to delegates, I remind Bolaji Abdullahi that such unfounded claims were made by an online news media notorious for spurious claims.

“That same media has reported that President Muhammadu Buhari is the mastermind of the recall, reinstatement and double promotion of Abdulrasheed Maina, the notorious alleged pension thief dismissed and declared wanted by the PDP administration of President Goodluck Jonathan.

“That same New York-based media also reported that President Buhari’s chief of staff received a bribe of N500 million from a major Nigerian corporation. That same media reported that President Buhari colluded with the GMD of the NNPC over the $25 billion contracts that did not follow due process. That same media reported that money was paid to delegates to vote for President Buhari against Atiku Abubakar using public funds during the last APC presidential primaries.

“So, if Abdullahi accepts that this media’s story is true in this instance, does he also accept that their stories were true when they reported negatively against President Buhari and his cronies?

“It is a pity that Bolaji Abdullahi calls the PDP a regional party. It is not the PDP or any of its members that said ‘the constituents who gave me 97 per cent cannot in all honesty be treated on some issues with constituencies that gave me five per cent.’

“Perhaps Bolaji Abdullahi is missing the PDP, his original home and mistaking it for the APC.

“While unsuccessfully mocking the PDP, may I remind Bolaji Abdullahi that his beloved APC has shifted its mid-term non-elective convention, three times this year alone. It originally fixed it for April, then August, later November and now till next year. Yet, this is a party that is pointing its leprous fingers at the PDP that held its own convention on the date that it said it would hold it.

“And finally, it is laughable that Bolaji Abdullahi calls on PDP members that have integrity to join the APC. Is that not the same promise they made to Abdulrasheed Maina when the Attorney-General of the Federation visited him in Dubai and discussed his return to Nigeria to help the APC fulfill its change mantra? Are we not witnesses to Maina’s APC campaign posters for Governor of Borno State?

“My advice to Bolaji Abdullahi is to appeal to Maina to release some of his pension loot to him so he can pay for courses in media management. He surely needs it.”