The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Presidential Campaign Council has said the All Progressives Congress (APC) has misruled the country for the past eight years and caused untold hardship for Nigerians.
In a statement on Tuesday, the spokesman of the PDP Campaign Council, Kola Ologbondiyan, asked Nigerians to punish the APC and its presidential candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, for their maladministration in Saturday’s election.
Ologbondiyan claimed that the APC plundered the national treasury, imposed policies that ruined the value of the Naira, and imposed unjust taxes and tariffs on essential goods and services.
He urged Nigerians to repay the APC with a humiliating defeat by voting en masse for the PDP flagbearer, Atiku Abubakar, who is touted to rescue the county from the clutches of the ruling party.
The statement reads: “Our campaign stresses that Nigerians cannot afford to gloss over the horrible experiences which they have been made to endure in almost eight years of APC, the administration which Tinubu claimed to have unilaterally foisted upon our country.
Nigerians should approach the ballot box with a determination to repay the APC and Tinubu for the devastation they caused our country.”
“Nigerians must go to the presidential election with the consciousness of how the arrogant, abusive, insensitive, corrupt and incompetent APC and its Presidential Candidate viciously pillaged our national patrimony, turned our revenues generating agencies into their cash cows, wrecked our once robust economy which was hitherto rated as one of the fastest growing in the world, ruined our productive sectors, took away jobs from our youths and turned our nation into the poverty capital of the world, where over 100 million Nigerians can no longer afford their daily meals and other basic necessities of life.”
“Our citizens must remember how the APC plundered our national treasury, imposed policies that ruined the value of our Naira, imposed heavy taxes and unjustified increase in tariffs for essential goods and services, triggered an astronomical rises in the cost of food and indispensable commodities, reduced the purchasing power of citizens, unimaginably turned industrious Nigerians to beggars and brought so much anguish that Nigerians resorted to suicide and slavery mission abroad as options.
“In the almost seven and half years of the APC administration, Tinubu and his co-travelers in the APC are reported to have used his various Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) companies to fritter over N14 trillion from our revenue generating agencies, part of which have been used to acquire choice property apart from those stashed away in vaults and bullion vans for vote buying purposes.
“The Atiku/Okowa Campaign urges Nigerians to bear in mind how corrupt APC leaders pillaged our petroleum sector, through very fraudulent subsidy regime and criminal increases in the pump price of fuel through which trillions of naira meant for our developmental needs; healthcare, education, security, housing, employment, and critical infrastructure was diverted to APC interests including cronies of the APC Presidential candidate.”
The PDP said Nigerians must on February 25 remember that the APC and Tinubu are responsible for the hunger, starvation, and devastation in the country.
It stated that the forthcoming election is a referendum on the eight years of the APC and a grand opportunity for all Nigerians to liberate themselves from the ruling party.
It added: “Under the PDP, a liter of fuel which sold at N97 now sells between N400 to N500 in many parts of the country, a bag of rice which sold for N8000 now sells for N40,000 and above, a measure of beans which sold at N250, now sells for N1000, a measure of garri which sold for about N100 now sells for N450 and above, a liter of kerosine which sold for N150 now sells for above N1000 a liter, a bottle of palm oil which sold for N300 now sells for N1,200 under APC anti-people policies. These are the legacies of Bola Tinubu which he wants to perpetuate and worsen if elected as President.
“It is therefore instructive for Nigerians to observe that the APC Presidential Candidate is at the center of all the woes that characterized the APC administration. He is the initiator and architect of the anti-people policies of the APC administration that have brought pain and hardships to Nigerians.
“This informs us why Tinubu has not been heard forcefully condemning the mindless killings, the harassment of Nigerians including the media as well as the massive corruption in critical agencies where his cronies are in charge.
“Our campaign cautions that Nigerians must note the simple fact that Tinubu has nothing to offer and this accounts for his inability to debate or engage with Nigerians all through his rowdy campaigns.
“Our campaign, therefore, calls on Nigerians, including those whose loved ones fell victim of the mindless killings, those maimed as victims of rape, kidnap, and arson attacks, those whose families gave up on life and took the supreme option, those suffering all forms of social dislocations occasioned by the compromising of national security by the APC; those whose jobs and means of livelihood were taken away; families who cannot afford their daily meals as well as all Nigerians who are suffering one form of anguish or the other because of the misrule of the APC to stand up, unite and resist the APC by voting for Atiku Abubakar on February 25, 2023.
“This election is a referendum on the eight years of the APC, a government that Tinubu claimed to have personally installed under which Nigerians have suffered untold hardships.
“The 2023 Presidential election is a grand opportunity for all Nigerians to liberate themselves from the atrocious APC by voting en masse for Atiku Abubakar, who is leading the charge in the mission to rescue, recover and rebuild our nation from the misrule of the APC.”
