The All Progressives Congress (APC) has dismissed the communique issued by the PDP after its national caucus’ meeting, which ended close to midnight on Thursday.
The APC says the PDP statement on the so-called political developments in the nation is a rehash of the opposition party’s infantile whining which will not save it from going down unless it rebrands urgently.
In a statement issued in Lagos on Friday by its National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed, the APC said that the PDP cannot continue to do things in its trademark old ways and expect a different result.
“It is time for the PDP to take a long, hard look at itself in the mirror and change everything that is ugly about the party, instead of wasting its energy and time on irrelevancies,” the party said, adding that the PDP was the architect of its own fall from power.
“The days of winning elections with the aid of slush funds, brigandage, deceit and rigging are gone forever, hence the PDP must return to the drawing board to fashion out decent and empirical ways of repackaging and selling itself to Nigerians, just like the opposition did when they decided to come together.
“Instead of a blanket and unsubstantiated accusation against the judiciary over the election petition tribunal rulings in Rivers and Akwa Ibom, the PDP would have shown itself to be a serious party if it had provided statistics on how many of the cases filed at the various election petition tribunals nationwide, after the 2015 elections, have so far been decided in favour of the PDP and the APC, so that Nigerians can see whether the PDP has not won any single petition or whether all the cases have been won by the APC.
”The PDP has forgotten that the same judiciary that it is wilfully castigating today had decided many election petitions in favour of the party and against the APC, whether at the Governorship, National Assembly or State Assembly levels, and the ruling party has not opted to bring the whole house crashing down on everyone just because of that.
”Going down the memory lane, when the PDP took itself to court in 2007 over the Governorship election in Rivers, the same judiciary that has now become an apparition to the PDP awarded the Governorship to a candidate who never even featured on the ballot because the party crookedly substituted his name. Then, the PDP did not see the judiciary as being used by the then PDP Administration, neither did the opposition castigate the judiciary,” it said.
APC admonished the PDP to engage in strategic thinking that could propel the party forward, rather than continue to be nostalgic about its past, as the 16 years of the PDP are nothing to celebrate.
Stating that President Muhammadu Buhari has brought sanity to governance in spite of the PDP’s attempts to distract him, the ruling party said that the PDP’s “ceaseless and ill-advised attack on the judiciary, the endless put-down of government agencies and the demonization of everyone but itself would fetch the party nothing but political grief”.
”Our parting word for the PDP; stop throwing juvenile tantrums against everyone, especially the judiciary. Stop wasting your energy on frivolous accusations. Learn how to communicate your thoughts to Nigerians in a more civilized way and put your shoulder to the wheel if you want to reincarnate as a force to be reckoned with in our country’s political firmament,” APC said.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had criticised the recent tribunal judgment on Rivers State governorship election, accusing the Department for State Services of interference.
Shortly after the PDP national caucus’ meeting, the party’s spokesman, Mr Olisa Metuh, told reporters that there was serious cause for concern in the nation’s political environment, especially as it concerns the survival of the nation’s democracy.
He wondered why the tribunal was able to deliver a judgement within 24 hours “in a case that had nearly 100 witnesses, 1,000 pieces of documentary evidences and nine written addresses, each not less than 40 pages,” raising concerns about the judgement of the Election Petition Tribunal.
