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Tag: PDP

  • PDP accuses APC of diverting N478m NDDC fund

    The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Presidential Campaign Organisation (PPCO) alleged yesterday that  the Presidency and the All Progressives Congress (APC) secretly drew over N478 million from the coffers of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) to ‘rent a crowd and offset bills’ in respect of the President Muhammadu Buhari  re-election campaign rally flagged off yesterday in Uyo, Akwa-Ibom State.

    The PPCO also accused President Buhari of directly appointing serving ministers and heads of government agencies as members of his campaign council for the purpose of continuing to use them as conduit pipes for the diversion of public funds to finance his 2019 campaign.

    Spokesman for the PDP, Kola Ologbondiyan, said the opposition party was also aware of the protests by some eminent Nigerians, including foremost businessmen, who were named as members of the APC Campaign Council without their consent.

    The action, PDP said, was a desperate bid to showcase the false impression that the businessmen were supporting Mr. President’s re-election bid.

    His words: “The N478 million NDDC fund which was originally budgeted for development projects in the Niger Delta was diverted to renting and transportation of crowd from other parts of the country to the rally to create an impression of popularity for President Buhari in the region.

    “Further information at our party’s disposal, shows that the said N478 million is part of the wholesome sum of N1.2 billion allegedly siphoned in tranches from the NDDC treasury by the cabal at the Buhari Presidency and APC leaders, who have been stealing money from various government agencies to finance President Buhari’s campaign.

    “Our party also has it on good authority that this ignoble scheme of siphoning NDDC development fund to finance his campaign was the main reason President Buhari foisted an unpopular leadership at the management of the NDDC despite the protests by critical stakeholders in all the states of the Niger Delta.

    “Furthermore, the PPCO is aware of the dissention by some APC leaders over President Buhari’s unilateral listing of individuals into his campaign council as announced by his media aide, without recourse to the selection process of the APC leadership.”

  • No comeback for PDP, Buhari, Tinubu, Oshiomhole, others vow

     

     

    There will be no chance for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to return to power in 2019 or repeat the 16 years of waste it foisted on the nation, leaders of the All progressives Congress (APC) have vowed.

    In their speeches while flagging off the APC National Campaign for the 2019 elections at the Godswill Akpabio International stadium in Uyo, Akwa Ibom state on Friday, President Muhammadu Buhari, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Adams Oshiomhole, Chibuike Amaechi and Senator Godswill Akpabio emphasised that APC will justify people’s hopes for a brighter future.

    Governors including Kayode Fayemi (Ekiti); Jibrila Bindow (Adamawa); Nasir El-Rufai (Kaduna); Ibikunle Amosun(Ogun) and Atiku Bagudu (Kebbi) also attended the rally.

    There was a large turnout of APC members of the National Assembly, ministers, party leaders from various states, including women leaders.

    Oshiomole said next year’s election would be a contest of integrity and others, noting that Buhari is a man of integrity who has led the country by good example.

    Oshiomole said Buhari’s integrity and exemplary leadership style has earned him global respect and reckoning among world leaders unlike others who can’t enter the United States of America.

    “The issue of the 2019 election would be that of charlatans and integrity. The opposition knows that you have integrity that is why they are blackmailing Mr. President”.

    He said that Nigerians will not support a government that will put for sale the oil assets of the country as the PDP presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar intends to sell off the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

    Tinubu said re-electing President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019 would give Nigerians hope and cause the diversification of the economy.

    Though alleging that the 16- year rule of the PDP ravaged and dragged back the economy, Tinubu however noted Akwa Ibom has become attractive to his party due to the efforts of former governors Victor Attah and Godswill Akpabio.

  • PDP condemns police invasion of Dino Melaye’s residence

    The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has condemned the invasion of the residence of its Presidential Campaign’s Director of Civil Societies, Senator Dino Melaye in Abuja on Friday.

    It flayed the Gestapo-like attack on Melaye’s residence and demanded the invading security officials vacate the premises immediately.

    A statement by the spokesman for the PDP, Kola Ologbondiyan, urged Nigerians to recall Melaye had a few days ago, alerted of a plot by the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Ibrahim Idris, to forcefully arrest him and inject him with poisonous substances due to his outspokenness against the misrule, corruption and infractions of the Buhari administration

    It reads: “It is therefore devious of the Nigeria Police, which had distanced itself from the plot, to turn round to invade Senator Melaye’s residence held hostage and beat up his domestic aides.

    “This invasion is part of the larger machination by the Buhari Presidency to use state apparatus of power, particularly the police under IGP Idris to harass, intimidate and clamp down on opposition members in a bid to create fear and subjugate the opposition ahead of the 2019 general elections.

    “The party recalls the series of attacks and harassment on PDP leaders, including the airport attack on its Presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, by security officials and notes that such is a clear recipe for anarchy and a political crisis that is capable of destabilising our nation.

    “The PDP therefore cautions the Buhari Presidency to desist from such provocative acts as such cannot bend the resolve by Nigerians to replace him with the PDP Presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, as their next President, come February 16, 2018”.

  • 2019: South West votes will determine winner of presidential election – Adewale

    The Chieftain of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Lagos, Otunba Segun Adewale has posited that South West region of the country will determine the winner of the 2019 Presidential election.
    Adewale made this known to newsmen on Christmas get together he organized for his business and political associates.
    Adewale said that the chances of the former Vice President Alhaji Atiku Abubakar is very bright but must ensure that he work with people who truly wants him to emerge as the next President.
    He said for instance in Lagos, a lot of the people running and forming a circle around him from the State have not lifted a finger to add anything to Atiku’s electoral fortune or campaign, he stressed further that many of them lacks the political sagacity to use their influence to affect his electoral fortune but keeps on with habit of name dropping.
    It is not a news that Nigerians have rejected APC, their only hope is to rig the election recklessly, and our party must be ready to prevent it by looking for trusted and capable hands with committed party members who are ready to defend the votes even with their lives.
    PDP have always won convincingly in South West but our polling agents are too porous, the elections are rigged right from polling units to collation centers with  intimidation and forceful declaration of fake result or outright refusal or allowing PDP to even vote in some polling units.
    Adewale said if Atiku truly wants to win convincingly in South West, he must assemble young and smart “Hard Working Team” with proven electoral track record and not the regular old and tired brigades who won’t event step outside their doors on the election day.
    He said that the party must take a cue from the recently concluded Ekiti and Osun election, he posited that all hands must be on deck if indeed the party want a resounding victory in 2019.

    Read Also: 2019: PDP not an option, Says Oshiomhole

    Adewale said that Nigerians will vote for PDP massively, we must play our own role to secured Atiku Victory by looking for a minimum of 50 strong, vibrant and honest people from each ward throughout the South West to man our polling units.
    The PDP Chieftain said that it is obvious that some of the so called leaders from the region are running from pillar to post just to be named State Coordinators but cannot stake their personal finance to kick off campaign but waiting for the “Atiku’s Money”, the same set of people have their strong links and family members benefiting immensely from Buhari’s government, how do we expect such people to work with all their strength to ensure that Atiku emerge from the region?  Adewale asked.
    According to him, both Atiku and Buhari will share Northern votes, South East and South South are for PDP but South West is the battle ground and as such, credible people must be chosen to man all the States in the region.
    Adewale said that Lagos has over 5 million voters spread across the 20 local government and 37 LCDAs created by the State government, it’s a peculiar State that needs men who can navigate it despite the structure of the ruling APC.
    Adewale who said his media statement is an SOS to Atiku and concerned stakeholders at the party’s top hierarchy, to take note of the perculiarity of Lagos State and South West as a whole.

  • PDP plans to tarnish President’s image

    The President Muhammadu Buhari Campaign Organisation has accused the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar of plotting to tarnish the image of the President.

    Spokesman of the organization, Festus Keyamo (SAN) said the latest claim in which Atiku linked phantom share in Etisalat and Keystone Bank showed that the opposition party planned “to release series of wild and unsubstantiated allegation against President Buhari, his deputy, Professor Yemi Osinbajo and members of their families.

    Keyamo reaction was contained in a statement titled: Etisalat and Keystone Bank shares: public alert on plans by PDP and Atiku team to release a series of wild, unsubstantiated allegations against the president and vice president.

    He said: “With the latest refrain of the PDP linking some phantom shares in Etisalat and Keystone bank to the ‘family’ of the President, we have it on good authority that the Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party and his party are set to release a series of wild, unsubstantiated allegations against the President and Vice President including their friends and family members, in the next few weeks. With the latest revelation that the said shares are rather linked to relatives of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, it has became a case of the thief calling the farm owner the thief, as the Yorubas would say in a popular proverb. These impending wild allegations would naturally border on corrupt practices without any evidential basis. The purpose is to attempt to dent the greatest forte of the President and Vice President going into 2019 elections, which is their personal integrity. The latest tactics of the main opposition is premised on the following grounds:

    1. a) Since their stuttering campaigns started, they have felt the pulse of Nigerians and realized Nigerians have not forgotten their misdeeds of 16 years whilst in office.
    2. b) They have decided to run a campaign of “we-are-all-corrupt” rather than defend their sordid records of merciless looting of the public purse, which has brought us to where we are today.
    3. c) The aim is to push Nigerians to equate an Alhaji Atiku Abubakar with President Muhammadu Buhari on matters of corruption. They want to deceive Nigerians to think that the 2019 elections is really a choice between two “corrupt” persons
    4. d) By repeating the lies a million times, they aim to get Nigerians to begin to give some serious thought to the lies. This is how the “Jubrin from Sudan” story started, before even some well-exposed and educated Nigerians were nearly converted on that issue.
    5. e) Their latest desperate diversionary tactics is because even the most uneducated Nigerian has now understood that all the issues upon which the main opposition is campaigning are self-indicting issues, especially on the Economy and Security. The foundation for the challenges in these sectors, are firmly rooted in their 16 years of disastrous governance. President Buhari has just started a re-building process.

    “Nigerians should therefore brace for six weeks of despicable lies from the pit of hell against the president and vice president, to try to suggest to Nigerians that the president and his deputy are part of the league of looters to which they belong. But Nigerians should understand that the choices before them have never been this clear: It is between a fugitive from the law in America and a President who has never been accused of stealing anything in his entire life and is respected both locally and internationally; It is between a man who claims he wants to ‘get Nigeria working again’ yet has always refused to pay his taxes AS AT WHEN DUE and a man who has NEVER cheated the Nigerian State. Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has since kept an ominous silence over this damaging allegation of irresponsible and deliberate tax evasion that is now before a court of law.

    Whilst the President and Vice President are prepared and willing to answer any genuine inquiry raised about their stewardship, Nigerians should always ask the critical questions as to “where”, “when”, “how”, names, dates, addresses, etc in respect of any allegation raised by the opposition before giving any credence to it. This is because as the Atiku Campaign continues to fall apart on a daily basis, we may hear such desperate allegation from them that President Buhari has sold the buildings in Aso Rock to the Israelis or Americans!!!

    “Nigerians should tell Alhaji Atiku Abubakar that it is too late in the day to impugn the integrity of Mr. President, or to “package” himself before Nigerians as a honest man. Nigerians only need to read the book by his former boss, ex President, Olusegun Obasanjo titled, “MY WATCH”.

    “Alhaji Atiku Abubakar must bear the cross and tar of corruption alone (as pronounced by the Congress in America and his former boss). He should not drag President Muhammadu Buhari into that room of moral debauchery with him.”

     

  • 50,000 Sokoto PDP members desert Tambuwal for APC

    In a major blow to the second term ambition of Sokoto Governor Aminu Tambuwal, 50,000 members of his Peoples Democratic Party have switched allegiance to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    The defectors were received by Sen. Aliyu Wammako, the APC strongman and Tambuwal’s former godfather.

    Among the defectors were former Special Advisers to Gov. Aminu Tambuwal, former local government Chairmen and former State House of Assembly members, as well as many other officials of PDP in the state.

    Sen. Wammako, welcomed the new entrants into the Party and assured them of equal treatment with all the existing members of APC in the state.

    Wammako further said that many more members of the PDP had already joined the APC and promised to unveil them soon.

    He warned the Tambuwal government against intimidating the workers who have pitched their loyalty with the APC.

    “No amount of intimidation would deter the people of the state from massively loving and supporting APC and all its candidates, at all levels.

    “Moreover, in a matter of weeks , the APC will take over the state, while President Muhammadu Buhari, including all the party’s candidates, at all levels , would be massively voted by Nigerians,” he said.

    Alhaji Ahmed Aliyu, the APC governorship candidate and Tambuwal’s former deputy said, “all the PDP members who initially went astray have now come back to the right party.”

    He congratulated them for joining the APC and assured them of equal treatment. He promised to emulate Sen. Wammako’s leadership qualities when eventually elected.

    The Director -General of the State APC Campaign Council, Alhaji Yusuf Suleiman, who was a former Minister of Transport commended Wammako for providing credible and worthy leadership to the party and its members in the state.

    Spokespersons of the defectors, Abubakar Dantama, former Chairman of Silame Local Government and Murtala Hassan, former state Assembly member said that they joined APC, because the party stands for justice and fairness.

    They also promised to assiduously work to ensure the success of the party’s candidates, at all levels in the general elections.

  • PDP is ill wind in Nigeria, says Presidency

    THE Presidency has described the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) as an ill wind that should be rejected in 2019 elections.

    Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity Garba Shehu, who stated this in a statement, also accused the PDP of irresponsible lies.

    He said: “The PDP has continued spreading lies about the Buhari administration in the mistaken assumption that its toga of corruption will dissipate if it succeeded in black painting every other person as corrupt.

    “The strategy is to make corruption appear as normative and that everyone is equally involved. They think by so doing, Nigerians will forgive them for their sins. This is a huge mistake.

    “The PDP has become an ill-wind on the country today and the elections next year present the citizens an excellent opportunity to save the country from it.

    “We can’t imagine a sane organisation shamelessly telling Nigerians that President Buhari is looting, as they themselves did of the recovered loot, the USD 322m lately recovered from the Abacha family. This is an irresponsible lie.”

    Shehu added: “The USD 322 million recovered is being used to make the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) of a monthly amount of N5,000 to more than 300,000 poor homes across the nation under the Social Investment Program introduced by the Buhari administration.

    “This is in line with the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the governments of Nigeria and Switzerland as a condition for releasing the funds.

    “As part of the MoU, the World Bank is monitoring the application of the funds.

    It is also important that the World Bank has equally given an additional facility to support the on-going cash transfers.

    “Nigerians are hereby advised to be watchful of what comes out from the opposition, not to be misled into voting for a party that sees nothing wrong with corruption and would rather have everyone drenched in its colours, as they irretrievably are.”

  • PDP is ill wind in Nigeria, Says Presidency

    The Presidency on Wednesday night described the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), as an ill wind on the country that should be rejected in 2019 elections.

    According to a statement by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, also accused the PDP of irresponsible lies.

    He said “The People’s Democratic Party, PDP has continued spreading lies about the Buhari administration in the mistaken assumption that its toga of corruption will dissipate if it succeeded in black painting every other person as corrupt.

    “The strategy is to make corruption appear as normative and that everyone is equally involved.

    “They think by so doing, Nigerians will forgive them for their sins. This is a huge mistake.

    “The PDP has become an ill-wind on the country today and the elections next year present the citizens an excellent opportunity to save the country from it.

    “We can’t imagine a sane organization shamelessly telling Nigerians that President Buhari is looting, as they themselves did of the recovered loot, the USD 322m lately recovered from the Abacha family. This is an irresponsible lie.” he said

    Shehu added “The USD 322m  recovered is being used to make the Conditional Cash Transfer, CCT of a monthly amount of N5,000 to more than 300,000 poor homes across the nation under the Social Investment Program introduced by the Buhari administration.

    “This is in line with the Memorandum of Understanding, signed between the governments of Nigeria and Switzerland as a condition for releasing the funds.

    “As part of the MoU, the World Bank is monitoring the application of the funds.

    It is also important that the World Bank has equally given an additional facility to support the on-going cash transfers.

    “Nigerians are hereby advised to be watchful of what comes out from the opposition, not to be misled into voting for a party that sees nothing wrong with corruption and would rather have everyone drenched in its colors, as they irretrievably are.” he stated.

  • PDP to Buhari: don’t extend IGP’s tenure

    The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday said that the tenure of the Police Inspector-General Ibrahim Idris should not be extended.

    The party, which claimed that the police boss is expected to retire in January next year, said he deserves a blissful retirement after January.

    Its national publicity secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, said PDP does not trust the Inspector-General because the police have been biased towards the opposition under his tenure.

    He said the police deserves a new IGP who will be politically neutral instead of dancing to the tune of the Federal Government.

    Ologbondiyan said PDP has bows the fear that Idris will not be far to the main opposition party during next year’s polls.

    He spoke with reporters in Lagos on the preparations for the polls.

    Ologbondiyan said the police has taken sides in some partisan issues in many neutrality and capacity for fiarness.

    He added: “We know that the tenure of the IGP expires in January, next year. We don’t want the government to extend his tenure. We want neutrality during the election.”

    Ologbondiyan, who aknowledged that President Buhari has mandated Vice President Yemi Osinbajo to represent him at the presidential debate, said the PDP candidate, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, is ready for the live debate.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Southeast Presidency only possible through Buhari – Sen. Ndoma Egba

    Former Senate Leader and senatorial candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Cross River state, Senator Ndoma Egba has said that for the South East to be in a position to produce the President of the country in 2013, they will have no choice than to vote for President Muhammadu Buhari.

    The former Senator said this in an interview with news correspondents at his Apo, Abuja office.

    He said no candidates can guarantee an Igbo Presidency in the near future.

    “let me hazard what may happen and I think they will go with President Buhari. They are hoping to produce a President in 2023 and that opportunity can only come through a President Buhari because by the application of the law, come 2023, Buhari will become illegible to contest because he must end his tenure and that is when the south east can have their turn” he said.

    “Any other person that comes, forget whatever promises they make. The moment they seat on that chair, they must take their constitutional two full terms. So, any other person will delay the chances for the south east. That is why I think the south east will go with President Buhari”.

    “It is not automatic though. We are talking about the opportunity and it is for the south east to go and organize themselves and ready itself for that opportunity”.

    “Will they have an opportunity in 2023 through President Buhari? The answer is yes, the opportunity will be there and you need to put your house in order. Will it be possible with other person in 2023 considering the fact that the person would have a constitutional two term. The answer is no.”