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Tag: PDP

  • ‘APC can’t defeat PDP in Bauchi’

    Bauchi State People Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate Hon. Auwal Jatau has said that the party will win next months’s elections.

    Also, the Chairman of the chapter, Ibrahim Yaro Yaro, urged the members to defend the legacies of the party. He said Bauchi will fare better under the PDP.

    The party chieftains spoke at the flag off the governorship campaigns in Bauchi, the state capital.

    Jatau charged party supporters to shun violence during and after elections, stressing that the contest is do-or-die affairs.

    He said: “Leadership comes from God. Any candidate that does not win his election should accept defeat in good faith because, in every contest, there must be a winner and a loser.

    “Politics should not be a-do-or die affair. So, once politicians understand that it is God that gives leadership to whom He pleases, our elections will be free from violence.”

    Yaro advised the people to collect their Permanent Voter’s Cards in their various local governments. He also urged them to vote for the PDP at the polls.

    He added: “The right of every voter is to exercise his franchise. It  is an inalienable right that cannot be taken away by any government or institution. Every eligible voter is entitled to vote, irrespective of whether he has a Permanent Voter’s Card or a Temporary Voters Card.

    “The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) cannot be defeated in Bauchi State. But, my advice is that you should not sell your votes to anybody because of temporary gain.”

    The Chairman of the PDP Contact and Mobilisation Committee, Alhaji Sanusi Magaji, congratulated the candidates, urging them to work assisuously for victory at the polls.

    Other PDP leaders at the rally   included Senator Adamu Gumba, the former deputy governor, Abdulmalik Mahmud, Senator Abdul Ningi, PDP Women Leader Hajiya Bahita Mahmud, the Organising Secretary, Muhamadu Sarde, legilators, commissioners, special advisers and council chairmen.

    At the rally, Governor Isa Yuguda did not make a speech. The governorship candidate, Jatau’s speech, was short.

    An observer said:  “If they had come out to speak, they would have been stoned more than what you saw. So for the interest of peace the governor and our governorship candidate did not speak. But that does not mean that we will not win the elections”.

  • PDP, Presidency’s Plan To Use Osun Tribunal To Scuttle February Polls Exposed

    The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in connivance with the Presidency, has concluded plans to use the Osun Election Petition Tribunal to scuttle the next month general elections in the country.

    It was gathered that the party, with the collaboration of the Presidency, is desperate in installing Senator Iyiola Omisore as governor of the state before the February 14 polls in the country.

    OSUN DEFENDER’s investigation revealed that the desperation of the Presidency is such that it would do anything to remove Governor Rauf Aregbesola, who, the presidency has identified as a stumbling block to its ambition in the South-West.

    It was gathered that the presidency is hell-bent on forcing the tribunal to declare Omisore as winner of the August 9, 2014 governorship poll in the state to destabilise the APC and cause upheaval in the geo-political zone, which may spread across the country and eventually lead to the eventual postponement of the general elections and allow the PDP to re-strategise for the polls.

    The medium further gathered that the party has felt defeated with the outcome of the governorship poll in the state, considering its importance to the general elections and would do anything to undo its perceived mistake.

    According to a source, the Presidency is desperate about the February 14 poll and has seen Governor Aregbesola as a problem in the South-West and getting him out of the way by hook or crook means would serve its purpose, especially as the courts are currently on strike and the governor would not be able to proceed to the appellate court, while Omisore would have been sworn in as governor during the poll, believing it could help the PDP’s chance in the zone.

    “As you know that the chances of the president returning to office fades everyday and would do anything to get back to the office, including tramping on the judiciary.

    “The Presidency does not give a damn about the facts before the tribunal, but is ready to force a decision on the members of the panel to favour the PDP and presidency.

    “You should know that no judge can overlook the chances of becoming a Chief Judge of a state and the party is ready to lure the chairperson of the panel with the chance of becoming a CJ in her state.”

    Findings showed that the recent celebration galore embarked upon by members of the PDP in Osogbo, the state capital, after the adoption of written addresses by both parties, was part of the script by the party to hoodwink the public into believing they succeeded in proving their case before the court ahead of the final script of the party.

    Meanwhile, the APC in the state is said to be aware of the plan by the PDP and is taking steps towards ensuring justice is done in the matter, irrespective of interest from high quarters.

    Some loyalists of the party are said to be threatening to make the state ungovernable should the tribunal be lured into declaring Omisore, as they are living witnesses to the election and there was no unit the result was manipulated.

     

  • Osun Tribunal: Govt Accuses PDP Of Sponsoring Confusion

    The Government of the State of Osun on Friday  accused the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)  of executing its plot to create confusion around the premises of the court, where the Osun Governorship Election Petition Tribunal has been sitting.

    The government alleged that large population of hoodlums, loyal to the PDP, stormed the premises of the court on Friday and created confusion around the Government House premises.

    Media aide to Governor Rauf Aregbesola, Semiu Okanlawon, in a statement said an earlier false accusation had been levelled against Governor Aregbesola by the PDP few days ago over a purported plot to bring hoodlums to pose as members of the judiciary workers union and prevent lawyers and members of the tribunal to gain access into the premises.

    He said that the government had called on the security agencies in the state to view PDP’s false accusation against Aregbesola as indication of their own plot to unleash violence on innocent people of Osun and the need to arrest anybody who breaches the peace of the state under whatever guise.

    Okanlawon said after the failure of the PDP’s hoodlums to unleash violence on innocent people, they resorted to baseless and wild jubilations, claiming that the tribunal had declared their candidate winner of the August 9, 2014 governorship poll.

    “It is startling how PDP leaders, their members and sponsored hoodlums could go to town, jubilating over a non-existent verdict. The parties to the petition only made final submissions to the tribunal.

    “Expectedly, the tribunal adjourned sine die (indefinitely) in order to return at a later date to announce its judgment date,” the statement noted.

    The statement therefore advised members of the public to dismiss PDP’s claims and view it as just another in the litany of the party’s lies and manipulations.

    On Friday, during the tribunal proceedings, security were beefed up around the court premises, as armed policemen and operatives of State Security Service (SSS) were deployed in the area to ensure that there was no breakdown of law and order.

    Members of the PDP after the tribunal sitting had gone to town singing that the tribunal had declared their candidate, Senator Iyiola Omisore winner.

    The news spread like a wildfire around the town, as residents of state were making calls to government officials and journalists to find out the true story concerning the sitting at the tribunal.

    The party’s National Secretary,  Professor Wale Oladipupo, Police Affairs Minister, Mr Jelili Adesiyan, Professor Oludaisi Aina, a senatorial candidate in the party, were among the leaders who led the party members to be jubilating around the major streets of the state capital.

    They later gathered at the secretariat of the party along Gbongan/Ibadan road and blocked the main road, dancing.

    Also dismissing the PDP claim, APC State Director of Publicity, Research and Strategy, Barrister Kunle Oyatomi, said; “it is not true that the PDP has won at the Election Petition Tribunal in Osogbo.

    “The PDP members had gone beserk. Nothing of sort has happened anywhere in any court of law of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”

    The APC therefore, admonished the residents of the state to shun the rumour, describing it as wicked and cynical jubilation by PDP members around some centres in Osogbo that they have won at the tribunal.

    “It is not only false, it is intended to create confusion in the state capital and other cities. What happened at the tribunal was not a judgment. The tribunal simply had addresses by all counsel representing their clients on the case. After that, the tribunal chairman adjourned sitting indefinitely.

    “No date has been fixed for judgment. Only a terrible mischief-maker and political vagabond will go about town, declaring victory and rejoicing in a case of this nature, which the court has not made final pronouncement on.

    “The people of Osun should disregard PDP’s antics. That party is already losing its mind and its leadership in the State of Osun needs spiritual and medical help.

    “Governor Rauf Aregbesola is in charge and All Progressives Congress is the party in power in the State of Osun.

    “Nothing has changed that fact. Osun people should go about their lawful businesses and treat the PDP people, who were jubilating over nothing with pity for something has seriously gone wrong with them,” the APC said.

     

  • APC to PDP: enough of mudslinging

    APC to PDP: enough of mudslinging

    •Let’s dwell on issues, says party

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) has challenged the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to tell Nigerians how it plans to move from the alleged near zero governance of the past six years of the President Goodluck Jonathan administration to good and purposeful governance, instead of engaging in perpetual and tiring mudslinging.

    APC’s National Publicity Secretary Alhaji Lai Mohammed, in a statement yesterday in Lagos, said the party believes that elections should be about issues that would be beneficial to the electorate, “not about throwing everything, but the kitchen sink at a particular candidate, simply because of his soaring acceptability.”

    The party added that it was, therefore, “time for the PDP to end the muckraking and tell Nigerians how it plans to tackle the worsening insecurity in the land, the collapsing national currency, with the United States (U.S.) dollar now exchanging for N215, massive unemployment, especially among the youth, decayed infrastructure and the unprecedented corruption under President Jonathan’s watch.”

    It said the essence of the sustained campaign of calumny against Gen. Muhammadu Buhari by the PDP was to distract the APC from telling Nigerians how it plans to effect the much-needed change from zero to purposeful governance, and also to sweep under the carpet the glaring failures of the Jonathan administration.

    ‘’In both instances, the PDP has failed, as Nigerians have refused to be swayed by all the scandal mongering by the PDP, while the APC has remained focused in selling its game-changing manifesto to the citizenry,’’ APC said.

    The party said the PDP and the president should tell Nigerians what happened to the $20 billion missing oil funds, amid concerns that the money could have vanished into the ruling party’s slush funds for electioneering campaign.

    The statement also reads: ‘’Nigerians are also asking: Mr. President, where are the Chibok girls who were abducted nine months ago, and whom you promised to reunite with their families? What happened to the stage-managed truce with Boko Haram and why has no one been punished for deceiving Nigerians?  Mr. President, where is the report of the forensic audit you ordered into the missing $20b oil funds? It is now two months since the deadline set by your finance minister for the release of that audit report. Will the report go the way of others before it?

    “Mr. President, why are our soldiers being sent to battle Boko Haram without the necessary equipment, even though trillions of Naira has been budgeted for the security and defence sector under your watch? Why are soldiers having to buy even their uniforms and the wounded among them financing their medical treatment, as some soldiers said in a CNN interview?

    “Mr. President, why have you castrated the anti-corruption agencies, rendering them comatose and unable to tackle the runaway corruption under your watch? What signals are you sending to the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC), for example, when you picked as your campaign spokesman the same man who is facing corruption charges? Is that a way of telling the EFCC to let the notorious suspect off the hook?

    “Mr. President, you vowed that those involved in the N2.6 trillion fuel subsidy scam would never go unpunished, but many months later, none has been punished and it is back to business as usual. When will you consider stealing of public funds a serious act of corruption, sir?

    ‘’Mr. President, you said while campaigning for the 2011 elections that ‘four years is enough for anyone to make significant improvement, and if I can’t improve on power within this period, it means I cannot do anything’. Why should Nigerians trust you to deliver on your promises this time around, now that the power situation has gone from bad to worse under your watch?

    “Mr. President, instead of creating jobs for the teeming unemployed youth of Nigeria, your administration has been fleecing and sending them to their early graves, as it happened during the fraudulent Immigration recruitment exercise in March 2014, when many innocent youths got death instead of jobs. When will you move from creating phantom jobs to real jobs?

    “These are the issues that are bothering Nigerians and these are the issues they want answers to, instead of engaging in an unprecedented personality-focused campaign,” the party said.

    APC said the truth was that the PDP and the president did not have any answers to the serious issues raised above.

    Hence, they have decided to engage in a multi-pronged approach of mudslinging, campaign for election postponement and the instigation of violence to scuttle next month’s general elections, among others.

  • PDP members stoned Jonathan’s campaign convoy, says Yuguda

    PDP members stoned Jonathan’s campaign convoy, says Yuguda

    •Fani-Kayode: it’s not true

    The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Presidential Campaign Organisation and the Bauchi State Governor, Mallam Isa Yuguda, have disagreed on the identities of those who pelted President Goodluck Jonathan’s campaign team in Bauchi and Katsina last week.

    While Yuguda, who was elected on the platform of the PDP, insisted that the hoodlums that pelted the president’s team in Bauchi were recruited by Abuja-based PDP politicians, the Jonathan’s campaign organisation blamed the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) for the attack.

    Speaking on a British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Hausa programme yesterday, Yuguda said: “I am sure and I want to let the world know that the people who did this thing were PDP members and those politicians in Abuja were the ones behind it. They were not APC members.

    “They found these youths on the road and gave them brooms and they instructed them that when the President was passing, they should raise the brooms and pelt them at him.

    “They did that so that the president would think that Isa Yuguda is against him. They have been telling him in Abuja that we are not supporting him. They did that to show the president that Isa Yuguda is nothing in Bauchi and to show that despite being an indigene of Bauchi, Isa Yuguda could not be respected with his guests in Bauchi.

    “We were not aware of the plan ahead of the rally. They took us by surprise. Did you ever hear of such a disgrace to any guest in Bauchi, let alone the President?”

    The governor’s position corroborated the statement by the National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, that the stone-pelting hoodlums were recruited by certain PDP chieftains, as a decoy to blame the opposition for the dastardly act.

    But the Director of Media and Publicity of the PDP campaign organisation, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, disagreed, insisting that the action was carried out by supporters of the APC.

    He described the statements by the governor and the APC spokesman as “lies, ridiculous and unbelievable”, adding that the claims were “absurd, reckless and asinine.”

    Fani-Kayode said: “Does it make any sense for the PDP to hire thugs to chant ‘’sai Buhari’’, to waive brooms in the air and to physically attack their own candidate’s convoy?  Does it make any sense for them to throw rocks at their own presidential candidate and injure his bodyguards?

    “Honestly, it is clear to all those with discerning minds that the APC have lost touch with reality. They have been blinded by their hate, deceit and their sheer desperation for power.

    “The truth is that they are the ones that have an inbred culture of violence and intolerance, and that encourage brutal and barbaric behaviour and not the PDP.

    “The PDP values peace, tolerance, a plurality of views, differing opinions and the sanctity of life; but the APC do not.”

    He warned the APC and its presidential candidate to be ready for what he described as “grave and far-reaching consequences,” if anything untoward should happen to Jonathan during the course of his campaign.

    According to him, “All hell will break loose. The stoning, attacks, violence and intimidation have to stop and the safety and security of our presidential candidate, our supporters and our members must be guaranteed, if we wish to avoid being propelled into a vicious and reciprocal cycle of violence, turmoil, destruction and catastrophe in this country”.

  • Adeleke berates PDP

    Adeleke berates PDP

    Former Osun State Governor Isiaka Adeleke has berated the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for misleading the people on the outcome of the last sitting of the election tribunal hearing the petition filed by its candidate, Senator Iyiola Omisore, challenging the victory of Rauf Aregbesola in the August 9 governorship election.

    Adeleke, an All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate for Osun West Senatorial district, advised the people to disregard the claim by the PDP members that the tribunal delivered a judgment in  Omisore’s favour.

    A statement by his media aide, Olumide Lawal,  said what transpired last Friday at the tribunal was that the petitioners-the PDP and Omisore- and respondents, the APC, submitted the final written addresses.

  • Over 5,000 dump PDP, APGA for APC

    Over 5,000 dump PDP, APGA for APC

    •Buhari’s campaign train moves to Anambra 

    Over 5,000 members of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Anambra State.

    This followed the inauguration of General Muhammadu Buhari’s Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) in the state by the coordinator, Chima Okafor.

    Okafor, a lawyer and his 12-member campaign team have taken the rally to the hinterland of Ogbaru, Ayamelum, Anambra West, Anambra East, Awka North among others.

    Before, the acceptance of the party was poor. What kept APC going was Senator Chris Ngige’s popularity.

    Political observers said with the massive support for the party, the battle between President Goodluck Jonathan of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Gen. Buhari would be close.

    The Nation learnt yesterday that the defectors took the decision because of the problems in their parties, which had resulted in factions.

    One of them, a former chairman in one of the councils, who preferred anonymity, said: “We can not continue this way every year in the PDP.

    “APC was regarded as a Boko Haram party in the Southeast because of the campaigns by APGA and PDP. But now, truth has prevailed. Our people are tired of being fooled.

    “Buhari is the most acceptable person among the candidates. Jonathan has failed the people.”

  • Uba’s, PDP’s campaigns get boost

    Uba’s, PDP’s campaigns get boost

    President Goodluck Jonathan’s bid for re-election received a boost at the weekend, when the leader of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Anambra State, Chief Chris Uba, took the party’s campaigns to Ogbaru, Onitsha North and South local governments.

    Uba is contesting the Anambra South senatorial seat with the candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and former Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) Chief Executive, Ernest Ndukwe.

    Following his acceptance in his zone, he took the PDP campaigns to the local governments to introduce other candidates and woo voters for President Jonathan.

  • APGA adopts PDP’s candidate in Enugu

    APGA adopts PDP’s candidate in Enugu

    The All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in Enugu State has adopted the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate, Mr. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, as its choice for the election.

    The party said its choice was based on his performance, expressing confidence that with Ugwuanyi as the next governor, there would be a secure future for the people

  • PDP sponsoring attacks to shift polls -APC

    PDP sponsoring attacks to shift polls -APC

    The attacks on President Goodluck Jonathan in Katsina and Bauchi were engineered by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)  to demonise the opposition and force postponement of next month’s general elections, the All Progressives Congress (APC) alleged yesterday.

    The “coordinated hysterical reactions to the attacks by the presidency, Senate President David Mark and the leadership of the Ijaw nation,” the APC said clearly exposed the brains behind the violence.

    The National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said in a statement that “those who have gone into frenzy in condemning the attacks should direct their anger at the PDP, which hired the hoodlums who attacked the President in Katsina and Bauchi and gave them brooms to make them look like APC supporters.

    ”Information is now in the public domain that these attacks were self inflicted with the aim of demonising the APC and instigating retaliatory attacks in the southern states, thus precipitating chaos which the PDP and the Presidency will then use as an excuse for the postponement of the elections

    ”Apparently they did not envisage that the information about their complicity over the attacks will leak to the public. It is common knowledge that the security around the President is such that no hoodlum can come close enough to pelt him with stones.”

    And responding directly to claims by the Presidency on Friday that the APC should stop the ‘nonsense’ of attacks on the President, the party said the Presidency was wrong to accuse it of breaching the Abuja peace accord that was signed by the presidential candidates of the various political parties, saying “the PDP and its band of thugs did not allow the ink with which the agreement was signed to dry before they started breaching it.

    ”The second attack on our offices in Rivers took place after the pact was signed, just like the serial attacks on our supporters in Sokoto, organised by a PDP stalwart in the city and aided and abetted by the police.

    “The death-wish-for-Buhari advert by the incautious Gov.Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State in the name of President Jonathan, which could have triggered unimaginable violence if not properly managed by the APC, also breached the agreement.

    ”Where was the Special Adviser to the President on Political Affairs, Prof. Rufai Ahmed Alkali, when all these breaches were taking place? Not once did he issue a statement to say ‘this nonsense must stop’.

    ”Where was the Senate President, David Mark, when these breaches were taking place? He was never on record as condemning the attacks on the APC offices and its supporters or the irresponsible and downright repugnant advert by Gov. Fayose. Are those in the opposition not Nigerians who also deserve the care and attention of the nation’s number three citizen?’”

    ”Mr. Senate President, sir, if any party is guilty of ‘despicable desperation’ as you claimed, it is your party, the PDP. Which party has been using all the cheap tricks in the books to postpone the lections at all cost? Which party has been sponsoring attacks against itself to demonize the opposition and force a postponement of next month’s election?

    “Which party has deviated from issues and become fixated on the person of the APC Presidential Candidate, savaging and lying against him at every point? Mr. Senate President, remember the saying that he who must come to equity must come with clean hands.”

    APC also slammed what it called  the self-serving, self-styled leadership of the Ijaw nation for vowing retaliation over the sponsored attacks on the President in the north and threatening the very existence of Nigeria if President Jonathan is not elected into a second term.

    It wondered where in the world threats have ever won an election.

    ”The last time we checked, elections are won and lost by the votes of the people, not by infantile threats. The last time we checked, no one is guiltier over attempts to undermine the oneness of Nigeria than some self-styled leaders of the Ijaw nation.

    “Had they been duly prosecuted and punished in accordance with the laws of the land, they would not have dared to continue hreatening the nation’s existence, even as those saddled with the responsibility of preventing suchthreats look on,” the party said.

    APC appealed to its members and supporters nationwide to continue to maintain peace in the face of the most egregious of provocations in order not to play into the hands of the PDP and the Jonathan Administration who are incredibly terrified of the forthcoming elections and will do anything to make sure they do not take place.