Though two years away, the race for the 2019 general election has kicked off in earnest with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) accusing the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government of plotting to decimate its ranks ahead of the election.
According to new Chairman of the party, Chief Uche Secondus, the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led government has been building new prisons to begin jailing members of the PDP from January 2018.
He made this known at the kick off of a two-day retreat for new members of the party’s National Working Committee (NWC)
Secondus said the party was unfazed by the plot, adding that those plotting to jail the party’s members will be the ones to land in prison.
He said, “We learnt that they are building more prisons. Let them go ahead and build more. They will be the one to stay there.
“We learnt that they are coming after our members in January. Let them continue. How many people will they put in jail?
“They should stop intimidating people. They should remember that almost everybody they had put in jail wrongly came back to become President.
“This is because they were jailed unjustifiably. So, if they are persecuting us, let them continue. But we will not withdraw the ultimatum we gave them to quit Aso Rock in 2019.”
The PDP boss noted that contrary to insinuations in the public sphere the PDP was more committed to waging war on corruption than the APC.
He further stated that the anti-graft bodies now allegedly used to hound PDP members were established by the PDP.
He added, “We stabilised the structure to fight corruption. Obasanjo, a PDP President, started the fight against corruption. He fought our members. But unlike now, no matter how corrupt you are, if you don’ t want to be arrested, just defect to the APC.”