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  • APC to PDP: you’re blackmailing judges handling Osun governorship dispute 

    THE Osun All Progressives Congress (APC) has alleged that “the smear campaign against it in Osun State by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) is designed to blackmail judges of the Court of Appeal, sitting over the disputed governorship election in the state”.

    According to the ruling party, “the PDP is spreading total falsehood that unidentified so-called officials of the APC are boasting in public that they have settled those judges in Abuja to decide in favour of Governor Adegboyega Oyetola”.

    “This is not only insidious blackmail of the respectable and honourable judges, the PDP is also attempting (with this false allegation) to disparage the integrity of the judges and instigate public skepticism, perhaps even rejection of the court’s decision, if it turns out not to be in PDP’S favour”, the APC declared.

    In a statement signed by its Publicity Director, Kunle Oyatomi in Osogbo yesterday, the APC warned that “the PDP will be held to account if the public order is breached as a result of the court’s decision that does not favour the party.

    “This is because the false allegation that the PDP is touting can potentially instigate violence,” the APC emphasised.

    The ruling party accused the PDP of “a tendency to plot to wreck the system, if the party loses this case that will be its fourth consecutive failed attempt to dislodge the APC from power in the state”.

    “It would also appear”, the APC argued, “that the PDP is uncomfortable with the democratic process, and the rule of law, and will do everything unfair, unjust and illegal to sabotage due process to snatch political power in Osun State.

    “Osun is moving forward and the APC will remain focused regardless of the shenanigans of the PDP. If that party will not mature politically and contribute meaningfully to the progress of the state, it will sooner than later become irrelevant,” the APC concluded.

  • APC to PDP: you are a damaged product

    THE All Progressives Congress (APC) has described the main opposition party, People’s Democratic Party (PDP), as a damaged product showing no regret for its retrogressive old practices, which brought the country to its knees.

    APC National Publicity Secretary Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu said in a statement in Abuja that it was becoming increasingly clear to the electorate that the PDP is not a party to either be trusted or taken seriously.

    Issa-Onilu accused the PDP of spreading fake news, misinformation and distortion of facts as focal campaign strategies for the 2019 elections.

    The APC said it supports ongoing global media attention and efforts to check the proliferation of fake news, particularly as the country gears up for campaigns ahead of the 2019 elections

    The party spokesman said: “The consequences of fake news are often dire as it inflames perceived divisions in our communities, fuels hate speech, leads to violence and distorts democratic processes, among others.

    “Disturbingly, the country’s main opposition PDP and its discredited agents have continued to deploy the loathsome strategy of fake news, misinformation and distortion of facts as focal campaign strategies for the 2019 elections.

    “While the APC is not surprised at the PDP’s typical theatrics in an attempt to evade scrutiny for its 16 years of misgovernance, it is instructive to the electorate that no lessons have been learnt by the prodigal party. It is indeed clear to the electorate that the PDP is not a party to either be trusted or taken seriously as it has missed out on the opportunity to apologise and show remorse for the cruelty it wrought on our country while in power.

    “What we witness instead is its weekly disgraceful and embarrassing shadow chasing through fake news and spurious allegations. PDP cannot pull the wool over the eyes of the good people of this country. It can cry wolf for all it cares, Nigerians won’t be deceived.”

    He added: “PDP remains a damaged product showing no regret for its retrogressive old practices which brought the country to its knees in terms of our infrastructure, economy, security, values and standing among nations of the world.

    “Instead of engaging the electorate on serious issues of development such as health, education, economy, foreign policy, security, corruption, pension, job creation, infrastructure development among others, the PDP and its agents have chosen to populate the mainstream and social media space with ludicrous fake news and infantile conspiracy theories, moving from one absurdity to another.”

  • APC to PDP: publish your audited accounts

    THE All Progressives Congress (APC) has challenged the main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), to publish its audited accounts and financial statement, if it has any.

    It urged PDP to stop casting aspersions and making baseless allegations.

    A statement by the APC National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, said its National Convention Committee was yet to submit a budget for the event, which is expected to take place in a yet to be announced date in June.

    Abdullahi, while reacting to the PDP’s claim of mismanagement of public funds against the APC for allegedly asking governors to contribute about N6 billions for the convention, said the budget for the convention was properly captured in its 2018 budget, which was approved by its National Executive Committee (NEC).

    The statement reads: “In reacting to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) allegations on the management of the APC finances and the funding for the party’s upcoming 2018 National Convention among other unsubstantiated allegations contained in a statement by a spokesman for the PDP, we refer the PDP to the APC’s 2016 published independent audit report and accompanying financial statements.

    “In respect of the funding for our upcoming national convention, we also refer the PDP to our earlier issued statement (http://officialapcng.com/re- despite-owing-salaries-apc- governors-to-contribute- n6billion-for-upcoming- congresses-convention/) and also invite PDP to note that the APC convention committee has not submitted a budget for the convention.

    “Besides, the expenses for the national convention to elect national officers and the presidential convention are duly captured in our 2018 budget. Therefore, the issue of N6 billion convention expenses is neither here nor there.

    “While we assure Nigerians that the APC has not adopted the PDP’s practice of dipping their hands into the public till to fund its political activities as brazenly displayed during the 2015 elections, we equally call on the PDP to emulate the APC’s best practice of financial probity and openness by making public their audited reports and financial statements, if they have any.”

  • APC to PDP: Stop misleading Osun workers

    Osun State chapter of All Progressives’ Congress (APC) has cautioned “mischievous politicians – especially those in the PDP to stop deceiving Osun workers by spreading the false idea that the primary obligation of government is to pay workers’ salaries.

    A statement signed by APC’s Director of Publicity, Research and Strategy, Kunle Oyatomi, the party said: “This stupid idea is not in the interest of government workers themselves, because it is capable of inciting the majority of the people against the workers and creating chaos in the society,” the APC warned.”

    According to the party, government has enormous responsibilities to the entire population of Osun; and all of these responsibilities are as important as paying salaries to workers.

    “The difference between a failed and irresponsible government and a successful and responsible one is the ability to manage available or limited resources to satisfy the needs of the greatest possible number of the people from who the government derives its authority and legitimacy to govern.

    ‘’It has become necessary to put a stop to the ungodly falsehood being circulated by few impressionable people who the PDP has deceived into believing the senseless idea that government exist only to pay workers’ salaries. Nothing could be farther from the truth.”

    The APC praised government workers’ perseverance and urged them to understand the important position they occupy within the establishment.

    Continuing, the statement said: “Civil servants are managers of the permanent infrastructure of government, while politicians are the variable executive and legislative aspects that are continually elected by the masses of the people to represent and protect their interests in government.

    “Government workers are mostly professionals, trained to keep the engine of government running. And together with the politicians, they are constitutionally responsible for creating, providing and maintaining the economic, social and environmental infrastructure to enable continuous activities of the masses that promote justice, peace and prosperity in society.

    “Therefore any political party like the PDP, that attempts to distract or misdirect the civil servants from this fundamental responsibility is an enemy of the people and the state; such political party must be rejected and prevented from participating in governance in the State of Osun.”

  • APC to PDP: face your problem

    APC to PDP: face your problem

    ONDO State All Progressives Congress (APC) yesterday described the crisis in its fold as “a mere storm in a tea cup” that will soon fizzle out.

    It said the disagreement would be resolved naturally in due course, urging the rival Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to face its factional crisis, which had produced two governorship candidates for one seat.

    Speaking to reporters in Akure, the state capital, the APC spokesman, Omo’ba Abayomi Adesanya, said: “There is no crisis in our party.

    “What we have is just a mere storm in a tea cup that will settle down naturally when the tea spoon is removed from the cup. The good people of Ondo State need not worry about it at all.”

    He emphasised that the party is one big indivisible family, saying misunderstanding between an identical twin brothers would soon vanish.

    Adesanya advised the PDP not to waste their time by making “a mountain out of a molehill”.

    Rather, he said PDP should be preoccupied with the polarisation that has engulfed it, with near impossibility of having a single candidate for the November governorship poll.

    The party, therefore, urged party members and leaders to go back to their trenches to begin mass mobilisation and campaigns for the APC, pending when campaigns committee and other organs are put in place across board.

  • Apc to Pdp on economic recession: it’s immoral to criticise Buhari

    Apc to Pdp on economic recession: it’s immoral to criticise Buhari

    IF the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has its way, the main opposition  Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will apologise to Nigerians for mismanaging the nation’s resources for 16 years. The APC yesterday said the rival PDP lacked the moral right to call for President Muhammadau Buhari’s resignation over the prevailing economic crisis.

    According to the APC, if the PDP government that was in the saddle for 16 years had not ran the country aground, the nation will not be facing the current hardship. It restated the Buhari-led administration ‘s commitment to resuscitating the economy in the quickest possible time and in the best interest of all.

    In a statement signed by its National Secretary, Mai Mala Buni, the APC  described the recent call by the PDP as the latest in the party’s insensitive plot to divert attention from the voodoo economics and reckless fiscal policies the country was subjected between 1999 and 2016.

    It said that the previous administration under the PDP ignored the warning signs that were glaring and failed to save for the future as attested to by the former Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Mrs Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.

    The statement reads: “For the umpteenth time, the PDP lacks the moral basis and credibility to comment or condemn the government on the economy after the mess it left behind. Instead, the PDP must apologise to Nigerians.

    “The warning signs were glaring to the immediate-past administration. But it choose the path of economic sabotage by looking the other way and squandering the country’s commonwealth – a reckless decision that has brought the country to its knees.

    “Nigerians will recall that even the immediate-past finance minister and coordinating minister of the economy, confessed that the zero political will to save under the immediate-past administration is responsible for the challenges facing the country.

    Emphasising the government determination to improve the people’s living condition, the APC said: “Happily, the President Muhammadu Buhari administration has embarked on well- thought economic agenda, policy actions, appropriate fiscal, governance, and socio-political reforms to revamp the economy and tackle the nation’s current challenges in the short to long term.

    “Under the new flexible foreign exchange policy introduced by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in June 2016, we now have a single market-determined exchange rate which enables suppliers of foreign currencies to bring in their money and take the same out at market-determined rates. The new foreign exchange policy being implemented will ensure our economy recovers in the medium to long term.

    “As contained in the assented 2016 National Budget, the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari is aggressively formulating and implementing policies aimed at diversifying Nigeria’s economy from oil to other sectors such as agriculture, mining and manufacturing.

    “The administration is also proactively tackling increased attacks on oil facilities in the Niger Delta region which has led to disruptions in crude production.

    “The President’s shuttle diplomacy has yielded positive effects on the country’s economic policies. As a result, several agreements concluded during the visits are positively impacting on key sectors of the Nigerian economy including power, solid minerals, agriculture, housing and rail transportation.

    “The fight against corruption remains a top priority for the President Buhari APC-led administration. In spite of desperate attempts by some partisans to discredit anti-corruption efforts in some quarters, the war against corruption is being won and has been well-received and supported. The generality of Nigerians agree that the days of impunity are over.

    “Through the full implementation of the Treasury Single Account (TSA) by the President Muhammadu Buhari APC-led administration, revenue leakages have been greatly plugged”.

  • Bayelsa APC to PDP: you harbour kidnappers

    Bayelsa APC to PDP: you harbour kidnappers

    The Bayelsa State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) yesterday told the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to look inwards for the incessant kidnapping across the state.

    The APC was reacting to an allegation by the PDP Youth Vanguard (PYV) that it was responsible for Wednesday’s abduction of Fynman Wilson, the special adviser on Political Matters to Governor Seriake Dickson.

    Condemning Wilson’s abduction and sympathising with his family, APC alleged that notorious kidnappers were not just members of the PDP but were also holding political offices in the administration.

    The state’s APC Secretary Merlin Daniel said the kidnapping of Wilson should have arisen from the statements credited to former President Goodluck Jonathan at the Dickson’s formal declaration for a second term.

    Daniel described Jonathan as a disappointment to Nigeria and Bayelsa, saying the former President foreclosed the ambitions of other PDP aspirants by asking those who had bought forms to forget their aspirations and support Dickson.

    The APC chief said Jonathan’s statement could have compelled supporters of aggrieved aspirants to engage in violent protest.

    He said the APC was too busy preparing for its primaries and too responsible to engage in criminality.

    Daniel said Wilson’s issue was politically infinitesimal to be considered a threat to APC’s march to win the December 5 governorship poll.

    He said: “We sympathise with the family of Fynman Wilson, the victim of the kidnap. At the same time, we condemn the action. It is frivolous for anybody to link the APC to the incident. Wilson is too politically infinitesimal to the next election.

    “We don’t consider him as a case to us. Besides, we are working towards our primary, the state’s congresses. We don’t even have time to look at PDP because PDP is not a case as far as Bayelsa State is concerned. APC is too responsible to indulge in an act like that. All the known kidnappers in this state work in PDP and holding government offices.

    “They should investigate themselves very well because the former President Jonathan, who has disappointed Bayelsa, made a statement at the PDP rally on Tuesday during the declaration of the governor, that every other person that bought forms on the platform of the PDP to contest against Dickson should forget their interests and work with Dickson.

    “Is it not possible that the aggrieved persons, because the statement is annoying, could do an act like this? Instead of looking into the problems in PDP declaration, they are coming to accuse APC. APC knows nothing and will not do that. The governor himself is not even a factor as far as the election is concerned, including Jonathan.”

    He added: “They (PDP) ruined this country and, today, he (Jonathan) is coming to Bayelsa, which he could not …see for six years, that they should work for Dickson. He said if Dickson is not voted for, it is going to bring down his image and his wife’s.

    “What has his integrity done to Bayelsans? Has his integrity built the roads in Bayelsa or built the roads from Yenagoa to Otuoke, his village. Has his integrity brought jobs to the people of the state?

    “Has the former President integrity completed our World Bank’s building? Has his integrity built the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) in Brass? He is coming to talk of integrity; he should be covered in shame to stand before Bayelsans and talk. I weep for him. He doesn’t deserve the respect of Bayelsans.”

  • APC to PDP: Produce Daura’s party  membership card or keep quiet

    APC to PDP: Produce Daura’s party  membership card or keep quiet

    The stand-off between the All Progressives Congress (APC)  and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) over claims that  the acting Director General of the Department of  Security Service (DSS),  Mr. Lawal Daura, is  a card-carrying member of the  ruling party raged on yesterday.

    The APC challenged the PDP which made the  allegation to show proof of Mr.Daura’s membership of the APC.

    “Nothing short of producing Mr. Daura’s membership card or evidence of his membership registration will convince discerning Nigerians that he is indeed a member of the APC as alleged by the PDP,” the APC National Publicity Secretary,Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said in a statement.

    He added:’’While it amounts to rabble-rousing and crass politicking for the PDP to have wrongly accused Mr. Daura of being a member of the APC without a scintilla of credible evidence, the PDP has weakened its argument by using the pictures in which Mr. Daura appeared with the President and the fact that he served on an election committee as evidence of his membership of the APC.

     ‘’Possession of an APC membership card by Mr. Daura or evidence of registration as a party member at his ward, local government area or state will be the only conclusive evidence of his membership of the party.

     ’’Until such  evidence is produced, we are sorry, we have to tell the PDP to shut up!’’

    The APC said the PDP is jittery because it is keenly aware of the kind of impunity perpetrated under the federal government it sired from 1999 to 2015.

    ‘’PDP has forgotten the saying that he who must come to equity must come with clean hands. When Mr. Mike Okiro chaired the Security Committee of the PDP Campaign Organization in 2011, did that prevent him from being appointed the Chair of the Police Service Commission, which is responsible for issues concerning the welfare, promotion and discipline of all police personnel, in 2013?

    ‘’When the Director-General of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), Mr. Mike Omeri, was appointed into the Jonathan Election Committee in 2015, did he resign his appointment as head of the agency or did he automatically become a card-carrying member of the PDP?

    ‘’Did retired Col. Kayode Are not become the DG of the DSS despite being a close confidante of Gen. Obasanjo during his electioneering to become President? Was this not under a PDP Federal Government?

    ‘’In any case, even in the world’s most advanced democracy, the USA, was a card-carrying Democrat, Mr. Leon Panetta, not named as head of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) by President Barack Obama in 2009? Here in Nigeria, the APC-led FG has not even gone that far, and the PDP is blabbing.

    ‘’It is an irony that the APC-led Federal Government, which has continued to conduct the affairs of state with a strict adherence to the law, is the one being accused by the immoral, irresponsible and grossly hypocritical PDP, a party that should cover its face in shame for wasting all of 16 years in the life of our country, a party whose members should show penance by hunkering down has continued to assault the sensibilities of a decent nation. What a shame!”

  • APC to PDP: accept your role as opposition party

    APC to PDP: accept your role as opposition party

    THE All Progressives Congress (APC) has urged the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to come to terms with the reality that it is now in the opposition.

    APC’s National Publicity Secretary Alhaji Lai Mohammed said this in a statement in Abuja yesterday.

     The APC said when the PDP should be strategising about the task ahead, it devoted a substantial part of the communique after the inaugural meeting of its National Working Committee and governors/senators-elect to complaining about alleged harassment and intimidation by the APC.

    The party said it showed that the ruling party still did not understand the enormity of the challenges awaiting it as an opposition party.

    The statement said the PDP “is scared stiff of being in the opposition”, adding: ‘’We don’t blame it as it has neither the capacity nor the commitment to be in the opposition. A party that stood for nothing but looting and rent collection will naturally be afraid of being in the opposition, where there is nothing to loot or rent to collect.’’

    APC advised the PDP to understand that it was not by repeating obvious lies that an opposition party could be effective, “but by being creative, knowledgeable, resourceful and above all credible. It is not by cheap blackmail, but by being resilient”.

    It added: ‘’This is why we wish to extend to the National Working Committee of the PDP a free orientation, just as we have offered the party’s spokesman a free crash course on how to be an opposition party spokesman. The theme of the orientation for the PDP NWC members will be ‘transiting from the ruling party to an opposition party’.

    ‘’In the first instance, there is no substitute for experience. Also, we believe that democracy will be deepened only when there is cooperation between the governing party and the opposition, hence the offer,’’ the party said.

    APC slammed the PDP for complaining about harassment and intimidation by the APC, saying if any party was guilty of harassment, intimidation and impunity before, during and after the 2015 elections, it was the PDP.

    The statement queried: ‘’Have they so soon forgotten the reckless show of shame by its Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) lackeys with the support of the police in Lagos or the mindless bombings and killings of APC members in Rivers and Gombe states, among others?  Only on Monday, APC supporters were again reportedly killed in Rivers and Kaduna states.

    ‘’Haven’t the folk in the PDP seen the pictures being circulated of its (PDP) supporters brandishing machetes in broad daylight during the party’s campaign in Aba on Tuesday, April 21?’’

    The party described as laughable the allegation by the PDP that the APC was trying to turn the country into a one-party state by luring and making irresistible offers to the leadership of the PDP.

    ‘’The truth of the matter is that the leadership of the PDP is not even waiting to be approached before fleeing to the APC. PDP leaders and members are falling over themselves shamelessly and swearing undying allegiance to the APC.

    “Well, in case they did not get the message of the President-elect and our national chairman, we want to repeat it in blunt terms: PDP leaders and members, you are not welcome in APC. Please stay in your party, but if – as we suspect – you cannot survive in the opposition, then take a walk, quit politics,’’ the party said.

    The APC described as blackmail allegation by PDP that it planned to use the Election Petition Tribunals ‘to truncate and subvert the freely given mandate by the people in the states and constituencies’.

    ‘’No amount of blackmail from the PDP will dissuade us from seeking redress in the Election Petition Tribunals, especially in states where the world knows there were no elections. Since we don’t believe in self-help as the PDP, we see a recourse to the tribunal as a lawful means of giving vent to our rejection of the massive electoral malfeasance and the resort to violence in some states

    ‘’In case the PDP, beaten and battered by electoral pummelling, has forgotten, the recourse to the tribunals to seek redress is the only lawful means of resolving electoral disputes. Anything else amounts to self-help, which is not our forte,’’ the party said.

  • APC to PDP: stop playing politics with human lives

    APC to PDP: stop playing politics with human lives

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) has urged the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to stop playing politics with the lives of Nigerians.

    The party stressed that it is wrong, irresponsible and uncharitable to make political gains out of the worsening and deadly terror attacks in the country.

    In a statement yesterday in Gusau, the Zamfara State capital, by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, APC said Nigerians are too discerning to be hoodwinked by PDP’s ceaseless finger-pointing and name-calling, as exhibited by the party’s “overly-exuberant and rarely-introspecting spokesman”, Mr Olisah Metuh.

    It said Nigerians, who watched the live telecast of its rally in Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital, on Wednesday, saw how the party, “left with no choice than to proceed with the rally because of the suddenness of the twin bombings in Jos”, the Plateau State capital.

    APC said the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) could not be prevailed upon to change the timetable of the Ekiti State governorship election.

    It explained that this was why the party made the rally as sombre as possible, in the circumstances.

    APC said: “Despite the presence of musical groups and other performers, all musical breaks in the programme and all other scheduled performances were cut out, while the rally itself was drastically abridged. “There is no doubt that the PDP’s spokesman did not even bother to get the full details of the rally before rushing to the media in his usual jumpy self.

    “Mr. Metuh is definitely eager to act like an opposition spokesman rather than the spokesman for the ruling party. This is not a problem as his party is definitely fighting hard to trade places with the APC as the main opposition party come 2015. We can only appeal to Mr. Metuh to wait for a few more months and, in the meantime, start learning the ropes as an opposition spokesman.”

    The party reminded the PDP that the Ekiti rally was not the same thing as the illegal rally in Kano, where President Goodluck Jonathan led other PDP leaders to engage in Azonto dance, less than 24 hours after 75 of his compatriots were killed in the first Nyanya bombing.

    It also said the Ekiti rally could not be equated with the failure of leadership, the cluelessness and the callousness exhibited by PDP leaders, including President Jonathan and Mrs. Kema Chikwe, in the aftermath of the abduction of the schoolgirls in Chibok; or, the fact that the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces is so afraid of a band of terrorists that he has failed to live up to his presidential billing by visiting Chibok.

    “It is, therefore, hypocritical, insincere, thoughtless, insensitive and uncaring for the PDP – a party without soul or conscience, a party under whose watch over 12,000 Nigerians have been bombed into smithereens by Boko Haram alone – to be seeking to paint the APC in its own warped and grossly distorted image,” APC said.

    The party said while the PDP has said it cancelled its rally in Ekiti because of the Jos tragedy, the PDP-led Federal Government, aka Protectors of Nigerian Posterity, has continued to run its shameless adverts on TV, comparing President Jonathan with legends of their time, like Martin Luther King Jnr., Nelson Mandela, Lee Kuan Yew and Barack Obama, even as Nigerians continue to die daily due to the President’s globally-acknowledged incompetence, ineptitude and cluelessness!

    “Nigerians should not be deceived by the propaganda that the PDP is shelving its Ekiti rally because of the Jos tragedy. No! The real reason the PDP has postponed the rally is because it was intimidated by the crowd that it saw at the APC rally in Ekiti on Wednesday.

    “Having realised that this will be a tough act to follow, and not knowing what to do next, the PDP quickly postponed its rally, supposedly in sympathy for those who were killed because of the ruling party’s years of misrule, but in reality to buy time to enable it use the nation’s scarce resources to rent a crowd for its Ekiti rally.

    “If the PDP and the Presidency want to show that they care for Nigerians, they should end their complacency, corruption-hugging and leadership failure that have put Nigerians’ lives at risk today more than at any other time in the country’s history,” APC said.