PDP is seeking Relevance After Election Loss, APC Replies Secondus

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has faulted the statements made by the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Uche Secondus, on insecurity in the country.

APC National Publicity Secretary, Lanre Issa-Onilu, described the remarks by Secondus as an attempt by the main opposition party to seek relevance following its loss at the poll.

“It is just an attempt by the PDP to find a way back to the front page of newspapers and to be relevant in the news,” he said on Friday during his appearance on Channels Television’s Politics Today.

The APC spokesman added, “It would have been unnecessary for any response at all to come from us as the ruling party but I suspect that the national chairman of the PDP may have stumbled on one of the statements they wrote pre-election.

“Because it sounded more like some of those campaign materials that were not used or that have been used repeatedly; for which the voters passed a verdict in the last election.”

Earlier, Mr Secondus addressed a press conference in Abuja where he condemned the killing of a Nigerian and a British national by gunmen in Kaduna State.

The PDP national chairman had also decried the rate of insecurity in the land, saying Nigerians had never lived in such great fear and trembling for their lives.

But Issa-Onilu insisted that the ruling party would not join issues with the opposition, noting that there was nothing relevant to argue about.

According to him, Nigerians are aware of who caused the problems and who is trying to find a solution to them.

The APC spokesman added that rather than engaging in such an argument, the ruling party was busy with how to ensure that the safety of lives and properties of the people was guaranteed.

He said, “At this stage, what we are focused on is how to ensure that all these problems that were created for over 16 years of PDP maladministration; that they no longer exist and we have made tremendous progress.”

“In this country, we all know what this country was before the APC came; we all know the tremendous steps we have taken and the progress we have made so far.

“We are focused on that and we are focused on governance; we are focused on policy and implementation of our policies,” Issa-Onilu stated.

On his part, an aide to the PDP presidential candidate and former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, disagreed with the claims that his party was desperate to be relevant.

Mr Phrank Shuaib who was also on Politics Today wondered how anyone with a conscience would align with the position of the APC spokesman.

He alleged that the number of deaths recorded under the present administration was much and all the Federal Government has done was to keep making promises.

“It is ludicrous to listen to this kind of vituperation coming from a ruling party because the lives of our people are very important to us,” Shuaib said.

He added, “It is unfortunate that this government is playing politics with the lives of our people. Security has been a challenge in this country under this present administration.”