The Nation Newspaper

Tag: APC

  • APC uncovers plot to attack Buhari’s convoy in Ekiti

    … It’s not true – PDP

    The Ekiti State Chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) on Monday said it had uncovered an alleged plot by agents of Governor Ayo Fayose to attack the convoy of its presidential candidate, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, who visits the state for a rally on Saturday.

    The party alleged that thugs have been mobilized to ambush convoys of APC members on their way to the venue of the campaign rally and cause mayhem on the day of the rally.

    The APC Publicity Secretary in the state, Taiwo Olatunbosun, in a statement on Monday said some Oodua People’s Congress (OPC) members have been recruited as “task force members” who has commenced the task of removing the posters of Buhari from where they were pasted ahead of Saturday.

    Olatunbosun said the posters were being removed despite the fact that the party had paid signage fees to the state Signage Agency, describing the action as “highest height of desperation.”

    The APC spokesman alleged that Fayose had already hired members of OPC with alleged help by the self-styled Speaker of the House of Assembly, Dele Olugbemi, himself a member of Dr. Fredrick Fasheun’s faction of the group, to attack the convoys of APC members on their way to the rally as PDP did in Rivers State.‎

    The OPC members, the party said, were engaged as task force men remove the posters of APC candidates. They are also to strike at the campaign grounds to cause stampede, the party alleged.

    “Fayose’s desperation knows no bounds. He took The Punch front page advertorial on Monday depicting that Buhari will die in office like three other Presidents from the North died in office.

    “This is dangerous for our national unity and ethnic harmony. Fayose is dangerous to Nigeria’s unity and the earlier the authorities, Nigerians and Ekiti people in particular appreciate this, the better for us as a nation,” Olatubosun explained.

    He said the OPC members were already in town to be deployed to entry points to Ado-Ekiti where they would ambush APC members on their way to the campaign grounds.

    Olatunbosun revealed that so far, the government-backed OPC men had removed Buhari’s posters pasted in his campaign office in Ado-Ekiti as well as those pasted in the party’s office in the state capital.

    “This is a clear case of undermining the peace pact brokered by eminent international leaders last week‎.

    “It is sad that after President Jonathan campaigned in Ekiti State, Fayose sent signage officials and OPC thugs to be removing our candidates’ posters after paying necessary fees to the agency.

    “Fayose’s hatred for Buhari knew no bounds, as his aide was behind a fake medical report on Buhari, declaring him as a prostate cancer patient.

    “Fayose’s aide forged the Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital‎ letter and forged the signature of a non-existent consultant to declare Buhari as a prostate cancer patient,” he stated.

    But the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) described the allegation as a “figment of APC allegation,” saying it harbors no plan to attack a candidate whose campaign is being trailed by health challenges and certificate controversy.”

    The PDP Secretary in the state, Tope Aluko, absolved Fayose of the alleged plot, saying the governor is busy leading the party’s campaign for its national and state Assembly candidates.

     

  • Niger deputy governor, 200 others move to APC

    The deputy governor of Niger State, Hon. Ahmed Musa Ibeto, and over 200 officials in the state left the Peoples Democratic Party for the All Progressives Congress on Monday.

    He announced his defection to journalists at the Minna International Airport where he will receive the APC presidential candidate, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, for the latter’s campaign in the state.

    Ibeto told journalists who gathered in his house as early as 8:30am that he along with over 200 leaders from the PDP had decamped to APC because of the injustice and irreconcilable differences with his former party.

    “You (reporters) are all witnesses to the charade that characterised the PDP governorship primary. We filed our objection to the primary up to the national level of the party with the hope for justice, but up till now nothing is done and we feel we should go to where we can find justice and fairness.

    “Over 200 people comprising serving and former members of National Assembly, state Assembly, former commissioners, former local government chairmen and party leaders across the 25 local government areas of the state are today crossing with me to the APC.

    “We have decided to list only those who are currently holding positions at local, state and national levels. All our supporters will automatically go with us and you will see all of them at Gen. Muhammdu Buhari’s rally today (Monday).

    “I am going to APC rally, but now I am going to the airport to welcome our leader, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari who is Niger State today for campaign.”

     

  • Campaign group decries demonisation of Buhari, APC

    Campaign group decries demonisation of Buhari, APC

    The campaign group of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential candidate, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari has accused the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) of demonising the opposition’s candidate and party, warning the ruling party to stop forthwith.

    Strategic Communication Director and former Lagos Information Commissioner Dele Alake, who gave the warning, advised the ruling party to explain itself on the multiple crises it has endangered.

    He expressed shock over the alleged use of red herrings, abuses and foul temper geared towards whipping up hatred against Buhari, appealing to the PDP to honour the violence-free pact entered into last Wednesday by the parties.

    According to Alake, one of such red herrings purportedly sponsored by the PDP is the allegation of corruption and favouritism in the defunct Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) run by Gen. Buhari under the late Gen. Sani Abacha’s regime and a little after, out rightly ignoring former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s recent statement that absolved Gen. Buhari of corruption.

    He accused the PDP of trying to portray Gen. Buhari as a violent man and one who supports the extremist Boko Haram sect, despite the fact that the APC candidate has himself been a victim of the sect’s attack.

    Alake described the argument that Buhari does not like the Yoruba, following his cancellation of the 1984 Lagos metroline project as “another desperate ploy to put a wedge between the Yoruba and the APC candidate, an ethnic ploy that has become the stock-in-trade of the PDP and President Jonathan”.

    “The critics suggest the existence of dossiers and investigative reports supposedly indicting the APC candidate of unwholesome activities when he presided over the affairs of the agency. But a few days ago, former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who was supposed to have commissioned the investigation, disclosed that he was in possession of the report and nothing untoward was established against the APC candidate.

    “To the astonishment of all right thinking persons, the PDP has chosen not to believe in the authority of President Obasanjo who ordered the investigation and has final say on it but prefers to allege that the man who has the fact is dead! Can there be a worse tragicomedy than this? Who really is fooling who?

    “It is true Gen. Buhari ruled as a military head of state. But it must also be acknowledged that General Obasanjo also once ruled as a military head of state. Yet, that did not prevent the PDP from nominating and presenting him as its presidential candidate in 1999 and 2003 general elections.

    “Gen. Buhari was himself a victim of Boko Haram attack, and has also lost some relatives to the sect’s violent activities. He has denounced the sect, and has signified his preparedness to take on the militants on a much firmer and intelligent basis than President Jonathan has done in four years.

    “In addition, though his views accorded with military dictates when he was head of state, he has submitted himself without reservation to democratic dictates in the past decade as he ran and still runs for elected office.

    “It does not bear repetition to say that no elected president could rule like a military leader, when the constitution is very clear on how democracy must be run and with what institutions that must be done. No elected president can suspend any of the institutions of democracy.

    “We hereby assert with all authority and knowledge that we can muster, that a disciplined leader like Gen. Buhari would never engage in the disingenuous and reckless abuse of state security institutions such as invasion of database offices of rival parties as President Jonathan has done.

    “The PDP refuses to acknowledge that the times have changed, and that the dynamics of Nigerian politics and the grave challenges of the moment have made the APC candidate’s style, views and discipline precisely the pressing need of the moment.

    “The President must be sorely embarrassed to learn the true story as relayed by the Alake of Egbaland, Oba Adedotun Gbadebo, a few days ago. The fact, according to the revered monarch, is that Gen. Buhari did not terminate the metroline contract but demanded a comprehensive study of the contract and project to ensure that the Interest of the country was protected.

    The PDP spokesmen have also refused to focus on President Jonathan’s own appalling record on integrating the Yoruba into his government, an integration that he only half-heartedly and desultorily began when elections were around the corner.

    “They also contradictorily accused him of attempting to crate a leading Hausa/Fulani and former National Party of Nigeria (NPN) politician from London to face charges in Nigeria, a fact derisively referred to by President Jonathan, when all along they had argued that he left politicians like him alone.

    “The fact is that President Jonathan’s mismanagement of inter-ethnic relations, a critical issue in a federal system like ours, is the source of the tension that pervades the nation. We wish to draw the attention of Nigerians to the list of President Jonathan’s 109-member Presidential Campaign Council published yesterday and ask if any Yoruba person of substance is on the list. It says a lot about the anti-Yoruba sentiments of President Jonathan.

    “The PDP has consistently avoided the main issues of this campaign. Apparently, it has no answers to them. The party prefers to focus on personal attacks, dreg up unsubstantiated records of the general during his military rule, make wild imputations of his motives, and label him atrociously in order to hang him.”

    “Nigerians, happily, have recognised that the country has little time left to tackle the grave economic collapse facing it, and the even more critical security challenges threatening the entire country.

    “The country is rallying to the side of the APC, to the side of Gen. Buhari and to the side of posterity. This is an idea whose time has come, which no one can stop, not even with all the abuses possible and all the tendentiousness the PDP can muster,” said Alake.

  • Sokoto Assembly candidates battle to retain APC tickets

    Sokoto Assembly candidates battle to retain APC tickets

    Two candidates for the Sokoto State House of Assembly election are battling to hold on to their party tickets following moves by various groups in their constituencies to substitute their names ahead of the general elections.

    Abdulwahab Yahaya and Abdullahi Zakari from Goronyo and Rabah State Constituencies, are facing challenges over their qualifications to contest the election.

    A group, Sokoto Stakeholders Forum, has already petitioned the state chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) urging them to stop both Yahaya and Zakari from contesting the election.

    Similarly, the group said it would launch a legal battle to deny the duo the chance to run.

    Speaking to reporters in Sokoto yesterday, one of the petitioners, Musa Abdullahi Mafara, said the two candidates are disqualified from contesting the elections because they do not have the necessary educational qualifications.

    According to him, the two candidates also stand disqualified because they are not registered members of the APC as required by the party’s constitution.

  • APC rejects interim govt, election shift

    APC rejects interim govt, election shift

    •Party says polls must hold as scheduled

    ALL Progressives Congress (APC) has said it will neither accept an interim government nor a postponement of next month’s elections, as being advocated by certain individuals.

    The party insisted that the elections must hold as scheduled on February 14 and 28, 2015.

    Its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, in a statement in Lagos yesterday, warned that any attempt to scuttle the polls in preference for any other arrangement would be resisted through available constitutional means.

    The statement said: “We are aware that those who are not comfortable with the turning of the political tide in favour of the opposition ahead of the elections are scheming to abort a possible victory for our party, through either an interim government or a postponement of the elections.

    “These enemies of Nigeria include those who are worried about the strong anti-corruption stance of our party and its avowed commitment to good governance, and those who favour the status quo of anything goes, bad governance and massive corruption that have left Nigerians deeply pauperised and traumatised.”

    APC said those who might consider the two scenarios of interim government and postponement of the elections as outlandish should consider the published, but yet unrefuted statement by Deji Adeyanju – said to be an official in the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe.

    The party quoted Adeyanju, who handles Dr. Okupe’s Twitter Account, as saying in a Blackberry Messenger (BBM) statement: “Buhari can never be President of Nigeria. Quote me any day any time. Instead of Buhari to become President of Nigeria, Nigeria would rather break up.

    “A military coup will even be allowed than for Buhari to become the President of a democratic Nigeria. Quote me any day, any time.”

    The party said since the statement had not been refuted, it could safely be concluded that the BBM represented the thinking in the Presidency circles.

    The statement added: “If a citizen is advocating a military coup against a sitting government just to prevent a supposed election victory of the opposition; it is nothing short of treason. Yet, the security agencies that have been falling over themselves, warning against incendiary and inciting statements, have not yet swung into action over this inciting statement. This is not encouraging vis-a-vis the non-partisan stance of the security agencies.

    “The truth is that what could as well be a Freudian slip by Adeyanju has exposed the depth of panic and desperation in the Presidency ahead of next month’s polls. This has also confirmed that those who have been canvassing, either openly or otherwise, the options of interim government or postponement of the elections, are working at the behest of certain forces.”

    The party, therefore, called on Nigerians to be vigilant and be ready to do everything under the law to protect the nation’s democracy; imperfect as it might be.

    It also alerted the international community to the evil machinations of some desperate politicians ahead of the general elections.

    ‘’Our stand is simple, but needs to be restated: the 2015 general elections must hold as scheduled all over Nigeria, and our party is ready for the elections. As we stated earlier, we will only accept the outcome of a free, fair, credible and transparent elections; not that of manipulated polls.

    “We will also not agree to the postponement of next month’s elections under any guise, and an interim arrangement plot is totally unacceptable to us.

    “We challenge the ruling PDP to also state its own stand on next month’s polls for the world to note.

    ‘’We also challenge the Presidency to state its own stand and to also distance itself from the anarchic and treasonable statement by one of its own over the forthcoming polls,” APC said.

  • APC kicks as Ladoja accuses Ajimobi of N68b debt

    APC kicks as Ladoja accuses Ajimobi of N68b debt

    Name the banks

    Former Oyo State Governor Rashidi Ladoja has accused Governor Abiola Ajimobi of plunging the state into a N68 billion debt.

    Ladoja is the Accord Party’s governorship candidate.

    The former governor, who spoke through the Director General of his campaign organisation, Adeolu Adeleke, said the state was indebted  to two unnamed third-generation banks.

    But the All Progressives Congress (APC) challenged Ladoja to name the banks, describing the accusation as cheap propaganda.

    Ladoja said the debt was incurred by the banks on account of a deal that warranted the financial institutions undertaking to finance the road expansion projects embarked upon by the government but which he alleged, were abandoned.

    He said one of the banks was owed N50 billion and the other N17 billion.

    The N67 billion debt, according to Ladoja, was in addition to a multi-billion bond secured by the government.

    The campaign director said the figure was part of a preliminary investigation by his party on the state’s debt profile as of last June.

    On the N500 million Ajimobi said he refunded to the state government, Ladoja wondered why the governor waited this long before talking about the issue.

    “Two of the bank drafts purportedly connecting Senator Ladoja with the false refund of money bore the dates: May 2, 2008 and May 7, 2008. But Senator Ladoja, confident that his integrity is intact, submitted himself to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on August 8, 2008.

    “What then is the nexus between the drafts published and Senator Ladoja? Could Ladoja have ‘refunded’ money before he went to the EFCC?

    “If indeed there was actually any plea bargaining as alleged, why is the matter still in court? Is the APC not aware that the case is with the Supreme Court?

    “Ajimobi also claims that the money he purportedly recovered from Ladoja through the EFCC is being used to build model schools in the state. But our perusal of the 2014 budget estimates did not show the inclusion of the recovered money in the budget.

    “We challenge Governor Ajimobi to waive his immunity and invite the EFCC and ICPC to probe his government.

    “A kilometre of road is awarded for N1 billion in Oyo State and the same contractor gets a kilometre of road for N400 million in Ogun State.

    “The intention obviously for Ajimobi is to tarnish the ever-soaring image of Ladoja, who has become his political nemesis, ahead of the February judgment day. But we are glad that his effort was a monumental fiasco,” Adeleke said.

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) has said the ancient propaganda style employed by the Accord Party would not work in the 2015 elections.

    In a statement by its Director of Publicity, Olawale Shadare, the APC said: “Ladoja and his party use the traditional hunger for news by reporters to pass across his childish propaganda and ill-digested lies.

    “The question reporters should ask him is the name of the so-called banks the government owes.

    “It is only reporters whom the profession gives the licence to hide the names of sources and important institutions, not desperate reporters. Let him quote the names of the banks and the amounts being owed them so that journalists can go to the banks and cross-check. Even political propaganda has left such infantile level.

    “Ladoja is merely pursuing shadows; the APC said the Accord Party and its leader could not fathom how government could have such huge infrastructural achievements without borrowing a penny.

    “To underscore the penchant for lies of the Accord Party, the Oyo State government, despite dwindling allocations from the Federal Government, has paid December salaries of workers. Only contractors who have not completed their works are yet to collect full payment.

    “It is equivocation of the highest order. If the state government owes that amount of money, it goes without saying that anyone who wants to come on board would not perform as he would be battling to pay back debts.

    “Why is Ladoja fighting the battle of his life to become governor if the government he is coming to administer is in this kind of debt? The party and its leader are too intellectually shallow to understand the implication of this childlike allegation of theirs.”

  • Lagos APC condemns Agbaje’s plan for Lekki toll

    Lagos APC condemns Agbaje’s plan for Lekki toll

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Lagos State has taken a swipe at the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP’s) governorship candidate for promising to reverse the toll gates at the Lekki end of the Lekki-Epe Expressway.

    The Lagos State government had franchised the Lekki Concession Company (LCC) to source funds and rebuild the highway to international standard under the Build-Own-Operate- and Transfer (BOOT) arrangement.

    But Agbaje said he would cancel the arrangement, if he succeeded Governor Babatunde Fashola.

    The APC, in a statement by its spokesman, Joe Igbokwe, said the promise by the PDP candidate could scare investors from the Centre of Excellence.

    “The threat is an irrational electoral promise directed at foreign investors, which stands to cripple the economy of Lagos and affect the wobbling Nigerian economy.

    “It is quite surprising that at this age and time, when the drive for foreign investment is needed to break the shackles of economic doom, an aspiring candidate to the Lagos State governorship stool should issue such naked threats to investors to boost his electoral chances.

    “Two days after Agbaje’s disastrous election promise to cancel the foreign-driven concession on the Lekki-Épé Expressway, newspapers carried a report that foreign investors, alarmed by the economic and political risks in the country, had pulled out N783.17 billion from the Nigerian Stock Exchange (SEC).

    “This is an alarming economic statistics that should worry every Nigerian but in his desperation to scoop votes from Lagosians, Agbaje is threatening to stop foreign investments in Lagos, such as the concession arrangement behind the construction and subsequent tolling of Lekki-Epe Expressway.”

    Picking holes in Agbaje’s statement, Igbokwe said the PDP-controlled Federal Government should explain to Nigerians why it planned to mount toll gates at six locations on the yet-to-be-built Second Niger Bridge.

    “Lagosians will like to know from Agbaje and his PDP why the Federal Government is promising a non-existent 1.8-kilometre Second Niger Bridge that will be tolled from at least six positions for 25 years while he is making a campaign issue of tolling a well delivered Lekki-Epe Expressway that meets the great needs of the beneficiary towns for a relief from endless traffic bottlenecks the PDP Federal Government has turned a blind eye to.

    “Again, Lagosians are aware that the dilapidated Airport Road, which the PDP controlled-Federal Government has abandoned while playing politics with completed world-class roads in Lagos are tolled.

    “But we find it alarming that someone who dreams of governing Lagos is issuing such economically disastrous threat to foreign investment in a state such as Lagos when the Federal Government under the control of his party has made the sing song of attracting elusive foreign investment the epicenter of its failed economic programme for the past 16 years.”

  • Bamidele attends APC meeting

    Bamidele attends APC meeting

    The governorship candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in Ekiti State, Mr. Opeyemi Bamidele, is making moves to join the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    Bamidele, a member of the House of Representatives, reportedly attended an APC meeting in Oshodi Local Government Area of Lagos State last week and announced his decision to join the party.

    A chieftain of APC in the local government, Mr. Kayode Tinubu, confirmed that Bamidele attended the party’s meeting and apologised to members for his defection from the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) to the LP.

    Tinubu, a lawyer and former Vice Chairman, Oshodi/Isolo Local Government, said Bamidele was the leader of ACN in Shogunle ward before he defected. The ACN is among the major parties that formed the APC.

    “He was with us at the APC Oshodi/Isolo Local Government last week to tell us that he was returning to the party,” Tinubu said.

    According to him, the leadership of APC in the state had mandated Bamidele to go back to the Ekiti State chapter and purge himself of anti-party activities before he could be re-admitted.

    At the weekend, Bamidele hosted the APC Deputy Chairman (South), Chief Segun Oni, at Iyin Ekiti where

    the issue of his joining APC was believed to have been discussed.

  • APC mandates Obi’s ex-aide to deliver Anambra

    APC mandates Obi’s ex-aide to deliver Anambra

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) has appointed former Governor Peter Obi’s Commissioner for Commerce, Industry and Tourism, Chima Okafor, as the coordinator for Gen. Muhammadu Buhari’s campaign in Anambra State.

    He is mandated to ensure that the party is not defeated.

    The Nation learnt yesterday that former local government chairmen and ex-speaker of the House of Assembly are about dumping the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the APC.

    Okafor, The Nation gathered, would relocate to Anambra State today to carry out his task of selling APC and its standard-bearer to the people.

    The grassroots politician said he had been appointed Gen. Buhari’s campaign coordinator.

    He said: “Our mandate is to make sure that APC takes its pride of place in Anambra State during the elections.”

  • APC candidate a man of peace, says Rivers monarchs’ chairman

    The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State, Dr. Dakuku Peterside, has been described as a man of peace by King Godwin N.K. Gininwa, Gbenemene Tai Kingdom and chairman, Rivers State Council of Traditional Rulers.

    King Gininwa, who is also the president of Ogoni Supreme Council of Traditional Rulers, made the declaration at his palace in Tai.

    The monarch said Peterside comes from a lineage of peace-loving people.

    He said:  “Our lives were not safe until Amaechi appeared on the scene. Today, the state is peaceful and we are all happy about it even though some people had tried to destroy this peace. I know Peterside is also from the same school of peace, so we will support you.”

    The monarch later handed a copy of the Holy Bible to Peterside, urging him to be guided as always by the scriptures in all his undertakings. He also gave the APC candidate a lantern, which is to remind him on the need to look for a way to improve on the supply of power to his kingdom.

    “One of our challenges here is power. Anybody who has gone outside Nigeria knows that the magic of the white man is electricity. So whatever plan you are making to develop Rivers State, make sure power is a priority. The people of Tai, Ogoni and Rivers need light. I, therefore, present to you this lamp.”