The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Wednesday denied the allegation of the All Progressives Congress (APC) that it induced federal legislators to join the ruling party.
In a statement released in Lagos on Wednesday, National Publicity Secretary of the party, Chief Olisa Metuh, described the allegation as an attempt by the opposition to taint the integrity of the concerned lawmakers. Metuh said all well-meaning Nigerians are bothered by the statements and actions of the APC, which he waved off as clear efforts to destroy the country’s democracy and plunge it into chaos.
“There is no doubt that the PDP, under its new national chairman, Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu, is reaching out to all its members including those that defected in a reconciliation drive that is already yielding dividends”, Metuh said.
“At a point, in the mind of some sections of the public, the PDP got to its lowest level, but we remained focused. Despite the defections of lawmakers from our fold, the PDP never assaulted their integrity”.
He promised that there would even be more defections to the PDP, which will validate the party’s consistent assurance that notwithstanding the challenges of the last few months, PDP would emerge even stronger than what is currently being witnessed.
“PDP is the only political party with a consistent structure, vision and achievements in the transformation of Nigeria since 1998”, Metuh said. “APC is a cacophonous amalgam of tribal and religious irredentists with no known vision or achievements in its earlier metamorphosis”.
Five APC members of the Federal House of Representatives — Ladan Bichi (Kano), Abdulsalam Adamu (Kano), Sani Galadinma (Zamfara), Ibrahim Gusau (Zamfara) and Umar Bature (Sokoto) — defected to PDP on Tuesday, to gift the ruling party majority of members in the lower chambers.
In response, APC accused PDP of desperately rolling out a mouth-watering enticement package of $2m to each senator who returns to the PDP, $1m to each member of the House of Representatives, and $10m to each leader who dumps APC for PDP.
