The leadership of the People’s
Democratic Party (PDP) has accused the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC)
of plotting to sabotage its December 9 national convention.
Citing “intelligence reports”,
the PDP said the ruling party has perfected plans to sponsor a parallel
convention using some unscrupulous members of the PDP to hold a parallel
convention.
Addressing newsmen in Abuja on
Friday, the National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, said
the aim of the APC was to factionalise and destroy the opposition ahead of the
2019 elections.
Adeyeye appealed to PDP members
across the federation to resist such temptation, saying the party was doing
everything to address grievances among its aspirants to the various executive
positions ahead of the December 9 convention.
“We are not completely oblivious
of the plans by the APC to sabotage our convention. Apart from the internal
fighting within the APC, one of the reasons why the party postponed its
national convention till next year was to enable it closely monitor our
convention with a view to destabilising our party ahead of the 2019 general
elections.
Adeyeye said, “The National
Caretaker Committee has uncovered plans by some unscrupulous members of our
party to hold a parallel national convention on December 9, 2017.
“This is totally uncalled for and
a complete act of sabotage. Those making such plans cannot be said to be honest
members of our party, the PDP. They are not patriotic but just out to destroy
our party.
“The planned parallel convention
is one of those ideas of the APC to create divisions amongst members of our
party. It will be most unfortunate for members of our party to allow themselves
to be used against the party, especially in the light of our recent painful
experience.
“These are all part of the agenda
of the APC to create an atmosphere of fear and insecurity around PDP members
before and after the national convention. It is also part of the overall strategy
of the ruling party to turn Nigeria into a one party state.
“The National Caretaker Committee
has been working very hard to carry all party members and supporters of the
party along in all the preparations for the forthcoming national convention
holding on December 9 – 10, 2017”.
According to him, the plot by the
APC was to capitalise on disagreements among the chairmanship aspirants of the
PDP, assuring that the leadership of the party would address the aspirants’
grievances in an open and transparent manner before the convention.
“We are putting our resources in
place to address all the fears earlier reported by some national chairmanship
aspirants. One of the steps being taken by the leadership is to make available
and in good time, the comprehensive names of all the delegates for the national
convention to all the aspirants before the convention.
“We therefore see no reason for
any honest member of this great party to want to disrupt our programmes, except
they are of course working for the ruling party, the APC”, Adeyeye added.
The party appealed to aggrieved
aspirants and members to take advantage of available internal conflict
resolution channels to ventilate their opinions, concerns and grievances.
It vowed to resist any moves by
anyone to sabotage the convention, saying however that there was very little
the party could do to dissuade members that may have decided to become paid
agents of the APC.
The party spokesman cited the
arrest and detention of some key PDP stakeholders on what he described as trump
up charges of corruption, saying that the ruling APC had already targeted no
fewer than 50 of its prominent members for arrest and incarceration.
Adeyeye said, “The APC
propagandists said we were crying wolf. Now we are being vindicated by the
continuing and unrelenting arrest, intimidation and harassment of our top
leaders.
“In the last one week, the former
Governor of Taraba State, Mr. Abubakar Danladi and the former Senate President
and Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator Anyim Pius
Anyim, two prominent members of our party, were arrested by the anti-graft
agency, the EFCC. This is apart from the five that were earlier arrested within
the month of November. We don’t know who will be next in the list”.
The PDP called on Nigerians and
the international community to be vigilant and to ensure that the APC did not
entrench full blown dictatorship in the country.
“The only reason why the APC is hell bent on killing the
opposition in Nigeria is due to its nonperformance and inability to deliver on
its campaign promises. They have failed Nigerians and they know too well that
they can no longer convince Nigerians to vote for them again in 2019.
“We want to assure members of our party nationwide that, the
leadership of the party led by Senator Ahmed Makarfi, will provide an enabling
environment and a level playing field for all those contesting for one position
or the other before and after the national convention.
“We pledged to ensure a transparent, free and fair election
and by the grace of God we are going to conduct the most democratic election in
the history of any political party in Nigeria”, the party spokesman said.
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