Stop The Sabotage, APC Warns PDP

The All Progressive Congress, APC, has warned the Peoples Democratic

Party, PDP, to stop sabotaging its efforts at conducting a peaceful

registration exercise.
The APC said the PDP has in several states sponsored acts of sabotage

against its membership drive, saying the ruling party is attempting to put

a cog in the wheel of democracy.
In a statement issued in Lagos on Monday by its National Publicity

Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said since one of the ways to

truncate democracy is by stifling popular participation, the PDP as a

party stands accused of working to truncate Nigeria's democracy by its

campaign of lies against the APC membership registration, which is aimed

at giving as many Nigerians as possible a chance to be part of their

country's constitutional democracy.
It said the only reason the PDP called a hurried press conference to spew

out lies on another party's membership registration exercise is because

the ruling party has seen the handwriting on the wall, since the

registration started, and has consequently become overly jittery.

”The PDP is wrong about its claim that the APC is engaging in phantom

registration. The party should know that while anyone can manufacture

numbers, no one can manufacture human beings. Therefore, in the fullness

of time, any party that gives a fake number of its membership will get its

comeuppance.
”The truth is that within the first three days of our registration

exercise, we had met and exceeded the target we set for ourselves.

Nigerians have flocked to our party, which they have come to see more as a

mass movement than just a political party. This explains why we have

extended the registration period by two days. The PDP is aware of the

widespread acceptability of the APC and has started quivering,” APC said

The party said instead of splitting hairs over the phenomenal APC

registration exercise, the PDP should go out there and launch its own

membership drive if it wants to know what Nigerians think of it.

”PDP officials should not just sit in their Abuja offices and make phantom

allegations about some party engaging in phantom registration, They should

go out there and see for themselves what is going on, and how Nigerians

are streaming aboard the train of change that the APC has become,” it

said.
APC also asked the PDP to stop trying to sabotage its membership

registration by sponsoring attacks on registration officials and hijacking

registration materials in Abia and Rivers, bribing some fifth columnists

to sabotage the process in Delta, and burning down our secretariat in

Gombe
The party denied getting any assistance whatsoever from the Independent

National Electoral Commission (INEC) or using any material obtained from

the commission, ”except of course if the public spaces we are using for

the registration are now being seen by the PDP as INEC's property”.

”The PDP accused the APC of trying to truncate the country's democracy

simply because the party (APC) is giving Nigerians the opportunity to

exercise their constitutional right to associate freely. It is now clear

to all discerning Nigerians that it is indeed the PDP that is working hard

to truncate our democracy by blocking popular participation and preventing

Nigerians from exercise their rights,” the party said.