PDP slams Lai Mohammed over call for withdrawal of registration certificate
The Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) has reacted to a suggestion by Minister of Information
and Culture, Lai Mohammed, that the opposition party has committed enough
infraction to get its registration certificate withdrawn by the Independent
National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Mohammed had
advocated the withdrawal of the former ruling party’s certificate in a
statement issued on Sunday.
The minister
in the statement expressed anger over the opposition party’s reaction to the
release of Dapchi school girls, saying: “Indeed, there should be a new
criterion for withdrawing the registration of a party like the PDP which has
failed both as a ruling and an opposition party!”
But in a
reaction on Sunday, the PDP in a statement issued by Kola Ologbondiyan, its
National Publicity Secretary, alerted the country of what it said was the
clandestine plan by the All Progressive Congress (APC) administration to
emasculate the opposition and pave way for an alleged self-succession plan of
President Muhammadu Buhari.
The
statement said, “Our attention has been drawn to a press statement by the
Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, wherein he demanded that the
certificate of registration issued to the PDP by the Independent National
Electoral Commission (INEC) should be withdrawn because the PDP lost in an
election and according to him, does not know how to function as an opposition
party.
“We want to
alert all Nigerians of a clandestine plot by the All Progressives Congress
(APC) led Federal Government to strangulate the main opposition party and plot
the way for the self-succession plan of their candidate, President Muhammadu
Buhari.
“Our party has
been following all the schemes and shenanigans of the APC as 2019 general
elections draw nearer.
“The main
plank of the plot is to ensure that President Buhari runs as a sole candidate
in 2019. To achieve this grand plan, they must work to exterminate all known
and perceived political opposition platforms in our country.
“Is it not
strange that a party who, in its almost five years of existence, cannot
constitute a Board of Trustees (BoT) in line with the provisions of its own
constitution will be asking INEC to withdraw the certificate of a party whose
all organs are intact and effectively functioning?
“Is it not
also laughable that a party, who cannot hold even a non-elective convention,
will be calling for the withdrawal of PDP’s certificate?
“It is
imperative to tell Alhaji Lai Mohammed and his cohorts in the APC that any
masquerade that dances first will eventually have to watch the dance steps of
others from the stand.
“It is clear
now that the APC and its Federal Government have come to their wit’s end. All
they need to do now is to sit by and watch Nigerians collectively return the
PDP to powers and by so doing restore the nation to the path of unity, national
cohesion and economic prosperity come 2019.”
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