Politics
Fake Bishops: PDP Asks Tinubu To Withdraw From Presidential Race
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has urged the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to withdraw from the race over the alleged hiring of unknown persons to dress as bishops.
PDP described the APC’s alleged action as unpardonable. The party’s National Publicity Secretary, Hon Debo Ologunagba who stated this on Friday at a press conference in Abuja, claimed that the APC was collapsing ahead of the 2023 elections.
“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,” he stated.
Ologunagba said more sickening was the outcry by the hirelings that they were allegedly defrauded by agents of the APC presidential candidate.
He added, “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.”
He said under the APC, the productive sector has been completely wrecked. Under the APC government, according to Ologunagba “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.”
Ologunagba said with PDP’s victory in Osun, it is crystal clear to Nigerians that Tinubu’s ancestral state of Osun and the South West geo-political zone which ought to be his natural stronghold outrightly rejected him.
He continued: “PDP’s sweeping victory and the spontaneous jubilation across our country are direct statements by Nigerians on their resolve to stand on the platform of the PDP to free themselves from the agonizing stranglehold of the lying, cruel, and life-discounting APC and its presidential candidate.
“Furthermore, Asiwaju Tibunu’s humiliating rejection in Abuja, where he had reportedly rushed to in a desperate bid to frustrate the smooth conclusion of the Osun State Governorship election is a clear testimonial that the APC Presidential Candidate has been roundly defeated.
“Our Party is privy to reports of how doors were locked against APC leaders in Abuja and how their frantic telephone calls and corrupt offers to truncate the Osun election were turned down.
“The APC Presidential candidate can recall that our Party had in a statement on June 8, 2022, cautioned him that he will soon realize that Nigeria is not one of his acquired estates or fiefdoms and that Nigerians are not his political string-puppets and retinue of lackeys, from whom he bought the APC Presidential ticket.
“Now that the APC Presidential candidate has lost the basic required leadership integrity and having been exposed and roundly rejected in his ancestral home State of Osun, the South West and across the country; our Party counsels him to immediately withdraw from the 2023 Presidential race to avoid further disgrace.
“Nigerians cannot afford to have fraudsters, liars, deceivers, perjurers, swindlers, and corrupt individuals at the helm of affairs in our country. Such individuals can only superintend over a deceptive, fraudulent, and duplicitous administration and worsen the woes faced by our nation under the current inhumane and rudderless APC administration.
“The APC Presidential candidate and his party should know that it is in his interest to withdraw from the race as it will be futile to go into an election in which the Will and aspiration of the people are manifestly against him and the APC.”
Mr Ojukwu, who recently returned to the interim National Working Committee led by Senator Esther Nenadi Usman, noted that the party had 34 elected members in the House of Representatives, eight Senators, and 80 members at the state Houses of Assembly after the 2023 general elections.
“Now we lost all of them,” he said. “I don’t think we have as many as five members in the National Assembly.”
The former national officer of the LP talked to journalists in Abuja and said he chose to join the caretaker committee led by Senator Nenadi-Usman because they are now the officially recognized leaders of the Party.
“I chose to work with the caretaker committee to help save the Labour Party, for the benefit of the party. I also want to use this chance to ask my colleagues at the national, state, and local government levels to come together and help rebuild our party.
“Another election is around the corner. We lost everything we have. They have left to other political parties. So I’ll reach out to all my friends in the other group to get together and work on making this party stronger again.
“The caretaker committee has formed a reconciliation committee. Let’s come together and talk so that we can restore the first opposition political party in Nigeria.”
Mr Ojukwu, who was part of the Julius Abure’s group, said there are no more factions in the LP.
He added, “There is a court ruling, and since it is valid, the right people are in the correct positions.”
He urged Barr Abure and others to drop the legal cases they have filed because they are not helping the party.
“Litigations are killing political parties”, he said. “They’ve seen many political parties disappear because of legal battles, and the Labor Party is losing support every day, which makes me feel sad.”
Mr Ojukwu said he did not think joining the Senator Nenadi-Usman’s NWC was a betrayal of the Abure group, describing himself as “the oxygen” of that faction.
“I’m with this group because of the verdict. But I never betrayed anybody. Rather, I was betrayed,” he added.