You are a dictator, PDP tells Buhari

Olisa Metuh, National Publicity Secretary of the

People’s Democratic Party.

• Says APC’s anti-corruption crusade a sham,
Presidency disagrees
THE Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday
accused the President Muhammadu Buhari-led All
Progressives Congress (APC) government of
hypocrisy, describing its ‘trumpeted’ fight against
corruption as ‘orchestrated.’
National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Olisa
Metuh, who addressed journalists in Abuja,
accused the Federal Government of double
standard and dictatorial proclivities in its anti-
corruption fight.
But the Special Adviser to the President on Media,
Mr. Femi Adesina, in a text message to The
Guardian, said: “The opposition seems to have
run out of ideas so soon,” he said. “Daily, we
hear the same jaded, hackneyed allegations from
them. I think they really are to be pitied; they
need help. A broken record that repeats itself
ceaselessly is of no use than to be thrown away.”
The PDP said whereas the party “has, overtime,
restated its support for a credible, holistic fight
against corruption, unfolding events have
confirmed our position that this administration is
only using the anti-corruption posture as a tool to
witch-hunt PDP members and perceived political
opponents of APC government.
“We are aware that having realised that Nigerians
have seen through their propaganda, deceit and
lies, as well as their ineptitude in handling
governance, the APC government is now mortally
afraid of the on-going rebuilding in the PDP to
take over power in 2019, and is as such, applying
every negative means to decimate our great
party, including the relentless victimisation of
our key members.
“It is clearly manifest that the same dictatorial
tendencies manifested during the military regime
of 1984 are being at present, applied in the polity
in the attempt to discredit PDP members and
weaken our great party ahead of 2019.
Metuh accused APC and its government of having
been busy denigrating the PDP and trying to
appropriate its achievements, while at the same
time blackmailing, hounding and harassing its
elected members with the aim to cow and force
them to leave the PDP and join their party.
“We have verifiable reports from our key
members that agents of the APC have been
approaching them to join the APC with threats to
use the EFCC to victimise them should they refuse.
The APC and its agents have been boasting that
they have the powers to deal with or spare any
person, depending on the party such person
belongs to,’’ the PDP said.
This, it said, “clearly explains why the so-called
fight against corruption has been selective and
focused against PDP members, despite counsels
by stakeholders that it should be holistic and in
accordance with the due process of the law.
“The best example of the curious nature of the
war against corruption is the fact that former
PDP governors and ministers are being hounded
and arrested over apparently orchestrated
petitions, while their APC counterparts, who have
more damaging petitions are being nominated for
ministerial positions.
Even other APC former governors who have on-
going corruption cases in court are being
rewarded with APC tickets for the forthcoming
governorship elections in Kogi and Bayelsa.
“On the issue of Senator Godswill Akpabio, we
invite Nigerians to note that in the three states of
Akwa-Ibom, Rivers and Lagos states, there were
petitions against their former governors.
Whereas the former APC governors of Lagos and
Rivers were rewarded with ministerial
nominations, their Akwa Ibom PDP counterpart
and the current Senate Minority Leader is being
hounded by the EFCC.
“This is in spite of the common knowledge that
Akwa-Ibom under Senator Akpabio is arguably
the least indebted state in Nigeria, and where the
governor appropriately applied available
resources to effectively transform the state. We
challenge the APC to show Nigerians any of their
governors that matched the feats achieved in
Akwa-Ibom under Senator Akpabio, whose only
building in Uyo is uncompleted and being built
with verifiable bank loans.
“The PDP, therefore state categorically that the
orchestrated investigation of Senator Akpabio is
politically motivated and targeted at weakening
the PDP for 2019 elections, by virtue of his being
the face of opposition in the National Assembly.
“ It is also part of the fight by the Presidency to
weaken the legislature as an arm of government
and prevent it from effectively carrying out its
constitutional role of checks and balances in a
democracy.
“As we speak, no APC member, despite the public
petitions of corruption and squandering of state
funds, has been invited or questioned by the
EFCC. We challenge the EFCC, as an anti-
corruption agency, to show Nigerians any
member of the APC it has so far questioned, not
to talk of being arrested since the emergence of
this administration, despite petitions against
them.
“Recall that even the case of former Adamawa
state Governor Murtala Nyako started before the
advent of the current administration but is now
reportedly being worked on ostensibly to
extricate APC members involved.
“This government has established itself as a
hypocritical regime that accommodates
corruption, profligacy and sleazes in government
quarters while hoodwinking the people and
witch-hunting PDP members.
“The hypocrisy of this administration came to the
fore with the show of insensitivity to the mood of
the nation as copiously demonstrated in
Saturday’s ostentatious thanksgiving party (with
hundreds of millions of naira spent) by the
Secretary to the Government of the Federation,
(SFG) Engr. Babachir David Lawal, at a time the
people of the North East geo-political zone, where
he hails from, are being ravaged by insurgency.
“Finally, we request Mr. President to end this
dictatorial proclivity of selective anti-corruption
war that has characterised the APC government.”