BY BENEDICT NWACHUKWU, ABUJA
The ruling All Progressives Congress has lashed out at the former Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission on his comment that lumped the party together with the Peoples Democratic Party.
The National Secretary of the Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee, Senator John Akpanudodehe issued a statement condemning the attempt to lump the ruling the party together with the party they took over from in 2015.
He said, “Our attention has been drawn to an uncontrolled, wrong and untenable political outburst by a former Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega in which he lumped the All Progressives Congress (APC), together with the failed People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
“While the PDP failed to meet the expectations of Nigerians as a government and opposition party, the APC is thriving, healthy and assiduously cleaning the massive mess left behind by the PDP which failed to deliver democratic dividends to the people of Nigeria after being in charge of the country for 16 years”.
The APC noted that while Prof Jega might be right about the PDP, a party under which he served as the Chairman of the nation’s election management body, they rejected his comparison of their party with the PDP.
“Professor Jega got his facts wrong and mixed up in his baseless comparison of the PDP with the APC.
“While we do not intend to join issues with Professor Jega, we encourage him to engage in genuine scholarly research and come up with evidence-based conclusions on the progessive orientation of the APC,” the statement added.
Hitting harder on the comments, the APC said “It is, however, instructive to note that having recently abandoned his academic pursuit and blindly plunged into the arena of PDP’s brand of politics, the erstwhile electoral umpire as a politician can make such political statements occasionally while trying to launch his political career in a mushroom political party.
“The APC is a strong, united, popular and focused political unit. Hence, the Professor should note the political lesson that maligning the APC would not provide him a springboard to achieve his desires. Nigerians are wiser and remain the ultimate judges.”
