Nigeria Sliding Into Dictatorship, PDP Raises Alarm

8 years ago

Nigeria Sliding Into Dictatorship, PDP Raises Alarm

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, yesterday drew the attention of the international community to what it described as increasingly fascist inclination of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC.

The party’s assertion in a communiqué issued at the end of a Special National Conference in Abuja, yesterday, came as senior PDP chieftains mocked the ruling APC administration for not being able to implement one of its campaign promises.

They also accused a serving APC governor and party chieftain of colluding to milk the treasury of N25 billion through implementation of the Treasury Single Account, TSA.

PDP officials, led by the Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ike Ekweremadu; acting national chairman, Prince Uche Secondus; PDP governors, led by Dr. Segun Mimiko; senators, led by Senator Godswill Akpabio; House of Representatives minority leader, Leo Ogor, all took turns to deride the APC administration, enumerating campaign promises they said the administration had failed to implement.

They also alleged a gradual emergence of dictatorship characterised by impunity, victimisation of opposition elements and the emasculation of the judiciary.

The event was the one-day national conference organised by the PDP, yesterday, in Abuja with the theme, “PDP and the Sustenance of Democratic Ideals in Nigeria,’, where the party also set March 2016 as its national convention to change its national officers.

Speaking earlier, Secondus noted that the APC had failed, saying the party had yet to implement a single of all its election promises.

Secondus also urged the Senate to carry out a proper investigation into the alleged payment of N25 billion as commission to a company on account of the implementation of the TSA.

Senator Ekweremadu, the highest elected official in the Federal Government, while applauding the unity of the Senate as an institution in supporting the Federal Government, irrespective of partisan hues, however, said he was at the conference as a proud member of the PDP.

Ekweremadu enumerated some of the campaign promises of the APC, adding that none of them had been actualised.

The Deputy President of the Senate also enjoined the media and Civil Society Organizations to partner the PDP to hold the APC accountable and preserve democratic ideals.

Also speaking, PDP BoT Acting Chairman, Bello Mohammed, who disagreed with those apologetic of the party’s 16 years in leadership, said there was no reason for PDP to apologise to Nigerians because the party had been vindicated, having la!d the foundation, adding that the APC had failed in its promises to Nigerians.

Also in his remarks, Governor Mimiko of Ondo State who spoke for present and former PDP governors, urged President Buhari to be fair to all Nigerians, irrespective of party affiliation by conducting free and fair elections in Bayelsa and Kogi states as well as release the bailout funds for Kogi State.
[ads4]