The Presidential Campaign Council of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has told the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) that it has no moral justification to describe a slip of tongue by its National Chairman, Iyorchia Ayu during a rally in Kano where he was quoted as saying “PDP has brought us shame. We won’t retain them in power.”
The gaffe by Ayu was feasted upon by the APC campaign team through a statement by its spokesman, Bayo Onanuga, who claimed that the PDP chairman was stating the obvious.
“In our view, Iyorchia Ayu did not suffer from slip of the tongue. He was only reflecting an inner guilt about the grave damage his party inflicted on our country for 16 years,” Onanuga said.
But while reacting to the APC statement on Saturday, the PDP was quick to remind the ruling party how President Muhammadu Buhari’s convoy was stoned by angry mob in the same Kano during a campaign rally few weeks ago.
In the PDP statement issued by one of its spokespersons, Dino Melaye, the main opposition party called on the ruling party to first deal with its internal wrangling before looking outside to find fault lines in other parties or cast aspersions on Ayu.
“Unsettled by the peaceful, stone-free and resounding rally of the People’s Democratic Party in Kano on Thursday, the fractured, factionalised and fading All Progressives Congress, APC, had no other reaction after the impressive outing than to make a song and dance of what was by its own admission, a slip of tongue of the urbane and intellectually savvy Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP,” the statement reads.
“To demonstrate the extent that incoherence and political erosion has so much disoriented the beleaguered APC, its spinners attempted to cover the flame of its failure with a bare hand in an attempt to veil the rejection and shame that beguiled the party when its leaders were stoned in that same Kano City just a few days before.
“The balablue of the APC is a shock therapy for the massive reception that the PDP received in Kano.
“It is repulsive and revulsive that a party that has ruined the economy and made it so prostrate that citizens are now buying their own currency will be talking about shame.
“How can a party talk of shame where in the place of hope for a better academic system in the university, its presidential candidate is assuring that instead of 4 years, students will spend 8 years? What a renewal of misery and hopelessness?
“How can a party talk about shame when its own presidential candidate is accusing the President of Nigeria and leader of his party of sabotage and an unpardonable economic mismanagement that has taken the naira from exchanging at 200 naira to a dollar to 800 naira to a dollar within 7 years?
“How can a party talk of shame when in a nation of over 200 million people, the APC is parading a man who most times doesn’t know where he is and utters unintelligible bulaba and balabu all over the place?
“How can a party talk of shame where trillions of naira has been spent on fuel subsidy and Nigerians in the pauperised villages are buying a litre of petrol at 400 naira while those who ferry public money around in bullion vans pay 180 naira per litre?
