The rulling Peoples Democracatic Party (PDP) has condemned leaders of Action Congress (AC), including ex-vice President Atiku Abubakar for describing PDP as a ‘rigging machine’ in a recent event and instead accused the AC of  ‘elevating the art of  rigging to new heights’.

I n a statement issued Monday in Abuja and signed by the PDP’s National Publicity Secretary, Prof. Rufai Ahmed –Alkali, the party described as ‘hypocritical’ the accusation that the PDP is a rigging machine and absolved itself of the accusation, wondering why some senior citizens would hide under the cloak of a political party to attempt to heat up the polity.

The statement , which copy was made available to The Tide Monday in Abuja, reads in part:

“The Peoples Democratic Party is once more constrained to bring to the notice of Nigerians the opportunistic antics devised by some politicians in their quest to remain relevant.

  “The latest of such vain shouts in the wilderness came from a gathering in Lagos at the weekends called the “National Convention” of the Action Congress where speaker after speaker took turns to preach hypocritical sermons on the state of the nation.

    “ It is a big irony to note that some of these later day democrats are persons with known track records of dictatorship and chronic intolerance to opposing views when they held sway in government.

“It is particularly curious for instance to hear former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, who was in Government for 8 years limiting his assessment of Nigeria’s democracy to the last 2 to 1/2 years  thus conveniently isolating himself and his tenure from scrutiny. This is yet another attempt at self-glorification and buck passing which Nigerians have come to know the opposition for.

“The unwarranted and foul mouthed condemnation of our Party by leaders of the AC especially the recurrent reference to the PDP as a “rigging machine” is hypocritical because available evidence have it that the AC has elevated the art of rigging to new heights.

“A ready example here is the blatant forgery of a Police report by the candidate of the AC in the last gubernatorial election in Osun State for which he is currently standing trial.

“It is also a known fact that most leading members of the AC are the architects and masterminds of the latest attempt to rig the call for the resignation of the president by falsely including names of credible Nigerians in their letter. It is disgraceful that virtually all those whose names were fraudulently included in this letter have publicly denounced the inclusion of their names for an unholy project without their knowledge or consent.

“Another glaring act of rigging and barefaced violation of the constitution is the insistence of the AC government in Lagos State on conducting sham elections in non-existent local government  areas. This unconstitutional act makes nonsense of their lip service to adherence to the rule of law.

“Another issue that featured prominently at the rally is the agitation by the AC for a wholesale implementation of the Justice Uwais Electoral Reform Report. It is indeed an irony that the same people who vehemently opposed the setting up of the Electoral Reform Committee are those now attempting to privatise and claim ownership of the outcome as if they had an idea of how the decisions were arrived at.

  “The Peoples Democratic Party wishes to state that the PDP-led Federal Government shall not be blackmailed or stampeded into short circuiting the process of electoral reforms. Like all other programmes of this Government, the electoral reform programme shall undergo due process and scale through all the legislative proceeding before it is finally adopted. We are in a democracy and therefore issues cannot be decreed into existence by fiat.

“At the risk of sounding repetitive and immodest, our democratic credentials are miles away from the AC and all the other parties in Nigeria. The mere fact that Nigerians from all walks of life actively contest in our primaries to fly our party’s flag in all elections go a long way in demonstrating again and again our acceptability. The same cannot be said of the AC where an arrogant cabal sits and anoint candidates for elections without recourse to due process. This was the case in the last sham and illegal local government elections in Lagos where bonafide members of the AC were shoved aside in preference for a hand picked few by the emperor of the party.

“Nigerians are getting tired of this baseless argument where a group of people constantly explain their failure to organise and attract people into their fold on the PDP.

“Nigerians are getting increasingly aware that the failure of the opposition is due to the lack of a principled and dedicated leadership who have no defined agenda for Nigeria.

“We are not opposed to individuals or groups coming together to form an alliance but we certainly do not accept blame for their impotence in making a mark in the Nigerian political space.”