Peppered by comments from the presidency that results from weekend’s election show that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) is the preferred political party, the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has fired a salvo denouncing the Presidency for promoting a wrong narrative and abandoning governance for party spokesmanship.
Presidential spokesman, Mr. Garba Shehu, in a statement, said on Sunday, Nigerians showed their confidence by voting the APC.
Said Garba,“We do not take this confidence of the people for granted and we will not fail them.
”Nigerians who appreciate the efforts of the administration in making life better for all citizens, especially under an economy facing the severest test from the global Coronavirus pandemic will not be disappointed.
“We thank them immensely for their trust in the party and government.
“We equally thank the Interim Management Committee of the party under the leadership of Mai Mala Buni, the Governor of Yobe, and the Progressive Governors Forum under Gov. Abubakar Bagudu of Kebbi State.
“We also thank all our governors, parliamentarians, state, local government and ward level APC chapters and the entire ranks of the membership for this brave and impressionable performance.”
”President Muhammadu Buhari in particular, is very pleased with the election outcomes.”
But on Monday, the chided the Presidency for resorting to false poll sweep claims on the December 5 bye-elections, describing it as another desperate measure to divert public attention from its manifest failures.
The PDP also mocked President Muhammadu Buhari for assuming the role of an emergency spokesman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in a bid to launder the image of the dying party.
The party said the President by doing this has “confirmed that he has indeed become a lame duck President, having abdicated his presidential responsibilities of securing the nation and managing the economy to issuing press statements for APC and struggling for media space, as spokesperson and image launderer of the party.”
The statement adds, “Perhaps Mr. President’s handlers ought to have informed him that out of the six senatorial bye-elections, the PDP freely swept three in free, fair and credible contests, while the APC only muscle the other three in polls that were marred by manifest irregularities and rigging.
“Moreover, the PDP is in clear lead in Zamfara where the INEC returning officer, Prof. Ibrahim Magatawa, openly betrayed the plot between INEC and APC to allocate votes for the APC and rig the Bakura State Constituency bye-election.
“The shameful enterprise witnessed in Zamfara only goes to further confirm how the APC rigged isolated bye-elections in Katsina, Kogi, Borno and Lagos where INEC officers were used to allocate fictitious figures away from the genuine ballots cast, which placed the PDP in clear lead.
“Such resort to rigging by the APC only confirmed its heightened unpopularity given the failures of its administrations both at federal and state levels, including wrecking our economy and pampering terrorists, bandits and kidnappers who are ravaging our communities and murdering our compatriots in the most vicious manner.
“Indeed, no well-meaning Nigerian can truly support such a corrupt party and incompetent government that have not only failed but has also roundly betrayed our nation, looted our treasury, destroyed our pride as a country and brought so much hardship and suffering to the people in a space of five years.
“It is indeed appalling that at a time Nigerians expect Mr. President to frontally tackle the escalated insecurity under his incompetent watch, particularly in dealing with the recent massacre in Borno state, he is more interested in praise singing of a party that have been rejected by Nigerians.
“Such dereliction of duty is a direct spat on the victims of mindless killings in our country and an insult on the generality of suffering Nigerians.
“As a party, the PDP asserts that since Mr. President has demonstrated his preference for party politics above governance, he should take a crash course on party spokesmanship, relocate to the APC national secretariat to join Alhaji Mai Bala Buni and leave governance for more capable and competent hands to pilot the affairs of our nation.”
