APC fires back at Atiku, says PDP is sliding into oblivion

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has dismissed the claim by former Vice President and presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, that Nigeria was sliding into a one-party state under the APC-led administration.

This was in a press statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka.

The APC said, “Exasperated by the drooping fortunes of his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, former Vice President and presidential candidate, has opined that Nigeria was sliding into a one-party state. He accused the All Progressives Congress (APC) of ‘increasingly turning Nigeria into a dictatorship of one party’ while hosting the National Executive Council of the Inter-Party Advisory Council of Nigeria (IPAC) yesterday, November 14, 2023.”

The APC accused Atiku of being “willfully blind” to the PDP’s plan to rule Nigeria for 60 years before its defeat in 2015, and of being “under the influence of a distorted vision” inflicted by the PDP’s repeated losses at the polls.

The APC also boasted of its achievements in reforming the electoral system and introducing technological innovations to improve transparency and deepen democracy.

The APC further lambasted the PDP for its “brigandage, impunity and profligacy” of 16 years, its “intractable internal contradictions” and its “impoverished leadership”.

The APC cited the example of the PDP’s National Secretary, Sen. Samuel Anyanwu, who contested as the PDP’s governorship candidate in Imo State in the recent off-season election without resigning his position as required by law.

The APC said, “The PDP’s flagrant disregard for due process, another of its bane, is the reason the party fielded its National Secretary, Sen. Samuel Anyawu, as governorship candidate in Imo State in the just-concluded off-season gubernatorial election.

“As candidate, Sen. Anyanwu failed to resign his position as National Secretary as required by law. Is it any wonder that the Imo electorate rejected Anyanwu, who clearly did not have confidence in his own candidacy to quit his position as a party officer? Anyanwu’s greedy disposition has reportedly sparked a fresh round of leadership imbroglio at the ‘Wadata House of Commotion.'”

The APC urged Atiku to concentrate on repairing his “damaged political psyche” and reviving his “comatose” PDP, and leave the APC out of their “combined predicament”.

The APC also welcomed Atiku’s charge to opposition parties to rally together to engage in opposition politics, saying that President Bola Tinubu would continue to deliver on his electoral promises in the Renewed Hope Agenda.

“On our part, President Bola Tinubu will continue, undisturbed, to justify his electoral promises in the Renewed Hope Agenda as he builds a safer, stronger and economically vibrant country for the benefit of all. That’s what Nigerians care about, that’s what they deserve,” he said.