APC alleges plan by PDP to sabotage ministerial nomination

•It’s not true, says Metuh

The Ondo State Chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) said yesterday that  it had uncovered plan by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to discredit some APC ministerial nominees and those for the board of the  Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) through frivolous petitions.

The APC said PDP governors are the brains behind the alleged plan.

The governors, according to the APC spokesman in Ondo State, Mr. Abayomi Adesanya, are targeting likely nominees from the Southwest with a view to getting them disqualified and causing confusion in the rank of the APC.

But the National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Mr. Olisah Metuh dismissed the allegation as untrue.

The PDP is said to have assigned one of its governors in the Southwest the responsibility of seeing the project through.

They are banking on using some disgruntled APC members to achieve their objective.

Adesanya alleged that the PDP governors met recently  with some PDP Senators on the plan and have also contacted  some civil society groups to label APC ministerial and NDDC nominees as corrupt people through unfounded allegations and frivolous petitions.He therefore advised President Buhari to be wary of the PDP’s antics.

He said the PDP motive was to destabilize the party and cause disaffection among its members particularly over the appointment of new ministers.

The party spokesman said that since it is clear that President Buhari will not allow any input from PDP governors on who gets appointed as ministers, they are desperate to get nominees disqualified.

However, Metuh said on phone last night that: “It is preposterous and inconceivable for anyone to make such an allegation against the PDP, its governors and its members in the Senate.

“As a matter of fact, we are worried that President Buhari has not appointed his ministers and we are eagerly waiting for him to do so.

“We all know that the country cannot make any meaningful progress if we don’t have ministers and I can assure you that that is not what the PDP wants. The APC is only making excuses for their inability to get things right.

“How can we hatch a plot to frustrate ministerial nominees when we don’t know the identities and the type of characters they are presenting? So it is unthinkable for anyone to be trading such rumour. It is untenable.

“They must know that the success of this administration is not the success of President Buhari or the success of the APC. Rather, the success of the administration is the success of the entire country. So let them sit up and face the task of governance instead of pointing accusing fingers.

“This was the kind of thing the APC was doing when it was in the opposition. They were busy bringing down every government policy and appointee, including cabinet ministers.

“We have stated before and we continue to state that our role as the opposition party is to engage the administration in constructive criticism and to offer credible policy alternatives.”

President Buhari has said repeatedly that anyone having allegations of corruption on his neck would have no place in his government.