Lawrence Nwimo, Awka
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Friday condemned the All Progressives Congress (APC), over the alleged hiring of “unknown” bishops and other clergymen to support its vice presidential candidate, Sen. Kashim Shettima.
The attack was contained in a statement signed by Hon. Debo Ologunagba, the party’s National Publicity Secretary, and obtained by Ikengaonline on Friday.
The statement posited that the hiring of the individuals was a nauseating, blasphemous and provocative act of desperation by a sinking political party.
It accused the ruling party’s flag bearer, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, of hiring fraudsters, touts and other people of questionable characters to pose in vestments to orchestrate an endorsement and advised him to withdraw from the race.
It reads: “The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is appalled by the nauseating, blasphemous and unpardonable act by the All Progressives Congress (APC) in hiring street artisans, fraudsters and touts and criminally dressing them in bishop’s vestments to orchestrate an endorsement for its collapsing presidential campaign.
“The PDP, in the strongest term, condemns this profane and highly provocative act of desperation by the sinking APC Presidential Candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, in the face of APC’s collapsing leadership, membership and followership structure across the country.
“Nigerians were sickened by videos and pictorial evidence of known mechanics, bus conductors and fraudsters sacrilegiously being dressed in fake bishop vestments and paid to endorse the unveiling of Asiwaju Tinubu’s widely rejected running mate, Sen. Kashim Shettima.
“Such action is unacceptable and unbecoming of any individual aspiring to a leadership position at any level let alone, the office of the President. This is an embarrassment to leadership.”
The PDP further said with this “scandalous act” and his ongoing battle with issues of “alleged perjury, non-existent certificate and allegations of extortions,” the presidential candidate, “has become more ethically challenged and lost all moral standing to seek election as the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
The statement added: “More sickening is the outcry by the hirelings that they were defrauded by agents of the APC Presidential candidate, who paid them sums ranging from N30,000 to N40,000 as against the N100,000 they were earlier promised.
“It is therefore ludicrous that instead of being remorseful and asking for forgiveness, the APC Presidential Campaign is shamelessly posting lame denials and excuses in the face of hard and verified evidence of its involvement in the shameless venture.
“Our Party is not surprised by the attitude of the APC Presidential Campaign. Such is consistent with the character and DNA of the APC, which was never a political party but a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) hurriedly put together by conflicting bed-fellows and inchoate sailors clobbered together for remote personal gain and whose only interest is to defraud Nigerians through falsehood, lies, deceit, bribery, temporary loyalty purchase, corruption of established institutions and violation of set rules without regards to the feelings, sensibilities and well-being of Nigerians.
“With this ugly episode, Nigerians now know the individual who has been the planner and executor of the lies, false promises and corruption of the APC that have brought disunity, excruciating hardship, mass killings and political instability in the country in the last seven years.”
The PDP blasted the APC government as corrupt and deceptive, noting that Tinubu confessed to having helped to install it, adding that under the ruling party, “our productive sector has been completely wrecked; the over $550 billion economy (largest in Africa and 26th globally) with a naira value of N167 to the Dollar handed over by the PDP has been brought to its knees with the naira now crawling at N665 to a dollar today.
“Under Asiwaju’s APC government, Nigeria’s debt stock has astronomically risen from N12 trillion under the PDP to N41.6 trillion with our nation going broke as Debt Servicing cost has now surpassed Government revenue with over N300 billion.
“Today, millions of businesses have been shut down due to harsh economic policies and high cost of fuel; unemployment has risen to over 35%, cost of food items, medication and essential services have skyrocketed beyond reach as over 90 million Nigerians are no longer able to afford their daily meals and other basic necessities of life. What a tragedy!”
