Vote-buying allegation: APC afraid of Atiku ― PDP

FOLLOWING the allegation of vote-buying made against it by All Progressives Congress (APC), which the ruling said led to the emergence of Atiku Abubakar as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) flag bearer in the 2019 presidential election, the main opposition party said it has noted the “uneasiness, apprehension and nervousness in the drowning Buhari Presidency and the fading” APC since Atiku won the ticket.

In a statement issued by Kola Ologbondiyan, its National Publicity Secretary in Abuja on. Monday, the PDP said such nervousness in what it called the deflated party has led to a renewed attempt at smear campaign with spurious allegations against our Presidential candidate; “a defeatist approach that shows that the APC and the Buhari Presidency are afraid of the Atiku candidacy and have reached their wits end, well ahead of the elections.”

According to the statement, the claims, by APC, of vote-buying at PDP national convention, is, therefore, “not only false but completely unfounded and symptomatic of a party that has totally lost bearing and now engaged in rumour mongering.”

PDP added: “However, for us as a party, such allegation from the APC is not unexpected given that it had tried everything possible to scuttle our national convention and Presidential primary but woefully failed, hence the desperation to engage in attempt to discredit the process that has been acclaimed as the beat in our political history.

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“Unlike the APC that has an unpopular Presidential candidate, who has failed in governance, foisted on it without an election, the whole world watched with excitement as 12 aspirants contested the PDP Presidential primary, where delegates drawn from respected Nigerians across the country, freely voted for a candidate of their choice.

“To the amusement of Nigerians, the APC conducted a non-contested convention in which it declared President Buhari as “winner” with over 14 million fictitious votes.

“In their desperation, they forgot that ‘Winning’ as a word connotes contest.

Strangely, the APC declared a candidate as having won when there was never a contest – a charade by a deceptive party with duplicitous leaders.

“While we note that the APC is suffering from a pre-defeat trauma, we caution this fading party and its presidential candidate, who had failed our nation, to steer clear of our party and get ready for issue-based campaign ahead of the 2019 elections.

“It is instructive to state that their attempt at smear campaign against our candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, will fail as Nigerians are interested only in the candidate that can make a turn around of the ugly situation Buhari Presidency has sunk us.”