The All Progressives Congress, APC, on Sunday, launched an attack on the leading opposition party, Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, accusing it of stage-managing the national chairmanship election against contestants from the South West of the country.
The APC said the plot against the contestants from the South West was to punish the entire people of the area for voting against the PDP in the 2015 election.
The position of the party was made known in a statement in Abuja on Sunday by APC National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi.
Said the APC: “Again, it is tragic that the PDP, which used to pride itself as ‘the biggest political party in Africa’, has now been reduced to a regional party.
“By frustrating the South-West’s chairmanship candidates, it is unfortunate that the PDP has decided to punish the South-West for not voting for the party in 2015.”
It would be recalled that zoning of the national chairmanship of the PDP to the South in general sparked off controversy.
Many of the contestants from the South West argued that it had earlier been micro-zoned to their part of the country before the sudden change of decision to zone it to the South generally.
With the position open to the people of the South generally, the governors of the party backed the eventual winner, Uche Secondus, who is from the South South.
While the contestants who came from the South-West backed out of the race in annoyance, the former Minister of Education, Professor Tunde Adeniran (South West) who remained in the contest till the end also stormed out of the venue of the election, alleging that the exercise was not free and fair.
Still reacting on the national convention of the PDP, the APC said the opposition party had not changed from its alleged corrupt ways.
Abudullahi said in the statement: “With revelations of how money-for-votes and systematic rigging were brazenly perpetuated during the National Convention of the Peoples Democratic Party, the All Progressives Congress is mindful of the popular axiom: ‘a leopard cannot change its spots.’
“The abnormalities that trailed the PDP National Convention have further exposed the PDP as a party not ready and willing to change.
“Indeed, the PDP has once again displayed itself to the generality of Nigerians that it is a party with corruption deeply rooted in its DNA.”
