We Cannot Be Blackmailed – PDP To Buhari, APC; Your Govt Insensitive

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, says that it will neither be intimidated, nor blackmailed by the President Muhammadu Buhari-led Government, nor the All Progressives Congress, APC, into abandoning the people.

The Party also said no intimidation or blackmail can stop it from pointing out the unprecedented sufferings of the Nigerians under the APC Government, and asking President Buhari to sit up or ship out.

The PDP, in a statement on Wednesday, March 23, 2022, signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, was reacting to the accusation by the Buhari Government and the APC, that the PDP was planning to destabilise the country.

In what is turning out to be a war of words between the two main political parties, the APC had reacted to PDP’s earlier allegation that Buhari and his Government have abandoned Nigerians to their fate in the face of biting fuel crisis, food crisis and power crisis.  It had accused them of insensitivity and said the President is absent from duty.

But in response, the Buhari Government and the APC strongly accused the main opposition party of planning to destabilise the country.

However, in a strong denial of the APC allegation, the PDP  said that the allegation should be the other way round. “If there is anybody seeking to destabilize our nation, it is the sinking, confused and discomfited APC that is clutching to straws and making unguarded statements including boasting that ‘heavens will not fall’ over its refusal to address the lingering fuel crisis”, the PDP said.

Following is the full text of the Statement by the PDP where it again, accused the APC and the Buhari Presidency of insensitivity.

You Are Afraid of Your Own Shadows, PDP Replies Buhari, APC

…Says It Will Not Succumb to Blackmail

“The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) says the Buhari Presidency and the All Progressives Congress (APC) are running from their shadows and haunted by their failures in governance.

“PDP’s position is predicated on the outburst by the Buhari Presidency on Tuesday, March 22, 2022 against our Party for asking President Muhammadu Buhari to address the lingering fuel crisis and cautioning that the unrelenting culture of arrogance, impunity, suppression and corruption by the APC administration was akin to “kneeling on the necks of Nigerians.”

“From the outburst of the Buhari Presidency, Nigerians now realize that the APC administration does not care about the suffering, agony and life discounting experiences encountered by our citizens daily as a result of APC’s thoughtless and inhumane policies.

“If there is anybody seeking to destabilize our nation, it is the sinking, confused and discomfited APC that is clutching to straws and making unguarded statements including boasting that “heavens will not fall” over its refusal to address the lingering fuel crisis.

“The APC administration is afraid because its corruption, impunity and recklessness which are responsible for the biting petrol and diesel crisis, collapsed national grid, distressed aviation sector, plummeting currency and near collapse of the production and service sectors of the economy are being exposed by the PDP.

“APC is afraid of Nigerians for bungling the once thriving $550 billion economy (largest in Africa and 26th globally) handed over to it by the PDP in 2015 and reducing our nation to the poverty capital of the world where over 80 million citizens, according to official reports, can no longer afford their daily meals and other basic necessities of life.

“Why would the APC not be afraid of the people when it opened our nation to terrorists and bandits who it reportedly imported from neighbouring countries in 2015 to help APC muscle and rig the elections, after which APC leaders failed to honour their deal to pay the said mercenaries for the heinous ‘services’ they were contracted to provide against Nigerians by the APC?

“The APC is uncomfortable, having been indicted for human rights violations including reported cases of extra-judicial killings, torture, illegal arrests, detentions and other atrocious acts as contained in the June 2021 report of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).

“Moreover, in stating that the October, 2020 peaceful EndSARS protest by Nigerian youths signified “murder, mayhem, mass destruction, even cannibalism”, the APC administration has confirmed reports of its complicity and approval of the violent attacks and gruesome massacre of innocent youths at the Lekki Toll Gate in Lagos.

“Such stance on the EndSARS peaceful protest by our youths also questions the sincerity of President Buhari’s description of the protest as “genuine concerns and agitation by Nigerians”. The renewed negative tagging therefore appears to be a design by the APC to frame our youths for another onslaught.

“The PDP holds that the EndSARS peaceful protest signifies the resilience of Nigerian youths against injustice, suppression and insensitive system being foisted on our nation by the APC administration. Our Party therefore cautions the APC to perish the thought of venting its frustration on the PDP and Nigerian youths.

“It is often said that a bad workman complains about his tools; but a hopelessly irredeemable one (which the APC is) complains about others.

“The APC must know that the PDP is back. Our Party stands with the people and will never be deterred from exposing APC’s atrocities and fighting for the wellbeing of Nigerians as we march towards 2023 to Rescue and Rebuild our nation from the misrule of the APC.”