The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has accused the President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government of planning to gag Nigerians in a bid to prevent them from freely discussing his administration’s alleged failures ahead of the 2019 polls.
The party made this known in a Tuesday statement through its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan.
According to the party, “no amount of threat and intimidation by agents of the Presidency will stop Nigerians from freely discussing the failures of President Muhammadu Buhari and ultimately vote him out in 2019”.
The PDP said that the “prevailing hunger, acute starvation, humongous corruption, escalated violence, daily bloodletting, government insensitivity and governance by proxy, which are the hallmarks of this administration constitute the referendum by Nigerians to vote out President Buhari and replace him with our candidate, Atiku Abubakar.”
The statement further read, “The party said the desperation by the Buhari Presidency and the All Progressives Congress (APC) to gag Nigerians as well as to divert attention from their failures by making spurious allegations and distorting facts can no longer help as Nigerians have already moved on in their determination to do away with them in 2019.
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“Nigerians are already aware of how the Buhari Presidency wrecked our once robust economy, shattered our national cohesion, subjected our citizens to the worst economic hardship and turned our nation to a large funeral palour.
“Nigerians are already aware of how the Buhari administration has been attacking our institutions of democracy, including the National Assembly and the Judiciary and how judicial officers and legislators have been serially attacked under this administration. They know that this administration does not possess a modicum of respect for rule of law and how it has been putting the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) under pressure to do its biddings.
“Is it not shameful that the Buhari Presidency is accusing the PDP of attacking INEC commissioners just because our party exposed the secret meeting between it and INEC Chairman at the Presidential villa?
“The Buhari Presidency is also at pains over our party’s unrelenting demand that President Buhari’s relation, who was recently redeployed from Operations/ICT to Welfare Department, be completely removed from the commission; a position that has been approved by majority of Nigerians across board.
“Let it be known that the PDP and indeed, Nigerians will continue to demand for a credible, free, fair and transparent 2019 general election and we invite the attention of the international community to all ludicrous arrangements that confer undue advantage on President Buhari and his APC, particularly in INEC, even before the blow of whistle for the elections.
“Finally, President Buhari should know that Nigerians are not ready to continue to accommodate his incompetent, insensitive, corrupt and divisive administration, particularly now that they have a very credible candidate in Atiku Abubakar.”