The ruling All Progressives Congress on Friday said that the gaffe suffered by the National Chairman of the main opposition People’s Democratic Party(PDP), Dr. Iyorchia Ayu that his party, PDP, has brought shame to Nigeria and Nigerians should not retain them was a not slip of tongue but the reality for everyone in the country to see.
Ayu had in Kano on Thursday suffered gaffe while speaking at the party’s campaign rally in Kano state.
Speaking on why Nigerians should vote for his party and the presidential candidate,Atiku Abubakar at the Sani Abacha Stadium in the State,Ayu said PDP has brought the country a great shame and they don’t deserve the votes of Nigerians
“We are supposed to be the leaders in Africa and everywhere in the world, we should be respected. PDP has brought us shame and we will not continue to retain them in power… APC,”Ayu had said
Reacting in a statement which made available to NPOReports on Friday through its Director, Media and Publicity of Tinubu-Shettima,Bayo Onanuga,APC said that the statement of Ayu was truly an articulation of inner mind and a self-admission of the egregious failing of his party, PDP, when it was in charge of the country for 16 years.
“The unravelling of the depraved Peoples Democratic Party reached extreme absurdity yesterday when its National Chairman, Dr Iyorchia Ayu while campaigning in Kano, declared that the party brought shame to Nigeria. Ayu’s verdict on his own party should not be seen as a mere slip of tongue.
“Ayu’s viral statement that ‘PDP has brought us shame and we will not retain them in power,’ concurs with the general verdict that the party failed the country and its people and should never be given a chance to return to power,”Onanuga said
Highlighting some the problems PDP brought into the country while in charge of governance, Onanuga Ajaokuta Steel Complex which was neglected by PDP but finally received the attention of government under the Administration of President Muhammad Buhari
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According to him,Global Steel Company was granted a concession in 2004 to oversee Ajaokuta Steel Complex while Atiku Abubakar, PDP’s presidential candidate was the head of the Obasanjo era privatisation programme,the decision, according to Onanuga was cancelled by successive government of PDP when it found out that it was a mess.
“Global Steel took Nigerian government to court and demanded $7 billion compensation, even though it failed to fulfil the terms of the concession by making Ajaokuta a reality.
“The case lingered for 12 years until the APC administration of President Muhammadu Buhari stepped in. Global Steel agreed to end its legal battle and walk away with $496 million of Nigeria’s money.
“As the Minister of Information revealed recently, the Buhari government, which has been clearing many messes left by the successive PDP administration, made a bulk payment of $250 million and agreed to pay the balance in five instalments. Till date, Buhari has paid a total of $446 million out of the $496 million. The Buhari government will make the last payment of $50 million next month and Ajaokuta will revert fully to the country and allow the implementation of government’s plan, including Russian intervention, to make the company operational,”Onanuga said
Onanuga further said that “Without showing any remorse and shame, Atiku Abubakar recently went to Kogi state, the home of the unfortunate Steel company to make another empty promise of reviving the company.
“Atiku probably wanted to cash in on the short memory of our people as his party has been going about with the conman campaign of recovering Nigeria, when it created, in the first place, the monumental damage that APC government has been struggling to fix for almost eight years.”
Onanuga said while PDP was in power,the party left the county’s national infrastructure,roads,rail, airports to deteriorate.
He added that,Atiku and his boss,Obasanjo failed to deliver on vital road networks, including roads to their towns.
“The APC government of President Buhari has now done the road to Atiku’s town in Jada, Adamawa State.
“Worst of all and most callously, the PDP shared the $2.1 billion meant to procure arms to fight Boko Haram insurgency, making our soldiers vulnerable to the superior weaponry of the enemies of the state and allowing insecurity to fester.”
Onanuga said that rather than for PDP and it’s presidential candidate,Atiku Abubakar to apologize to Nigerians,the party in the last few days has been making outlandish claims and raising false alarms to just grab the headlines.
According to him, PDP resulted to that because the party and its perennial presidential candidate have nothing tangible to tell Nigerians because of their sordid past.
“If PDP campaign spokesmen are not making false claims of Billions being stashed away by our presidential candidate, their sleepwalking Director-General, Aminu Tambuwal who has no record of any achievement in Sokoto State, where he has been Governor for almost eight years, will construct imaginary plan by APC to hack INEC server and BVAS.
“Nigerians, we believe, know the true hackers. Atiku’s PDP did so in 2019 and may well be planning to do so this month. PDP has become a danger to itself and a big threat to our country that must be finally exterminated from our body politic by Nigerians through their votes against the party that set our country back.
“In our view, Iyorchia Ayu did not suffer slip of the tongue. He was only reflecting an inner guilt about the grave damage his party inflicted on our country for 16 years.”
He urged Nigerians never to make the error of allowing PDP return to power adding that PDP has not learnt any lesson and has not changed its behaviour.
“The Nigerian voters should simply consign it to the dustbin of history, while keeping faith with the APC, which offers Renewed Hope,”He added