APC’s Allegation of Vote Buying at National Convention False, Says PDP

By Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has described the claims by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) of vote buying at its national convention held in Port Harcourt, Rivers State as not only false but completely unfounded and a symptomatic of a party that has totally lost bearing.

The opposition party said it notes the uneasiness, apprehension and nervousness in the drowning Buhari presidency and the fading APC since the emergence of Atiku Abubakar as the presidential candidate of the party.

PDP’s National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, stressed that such allegation from the APC is not unexpected given that it had tried everything possible to scuttle its convention and presidential primary but woefully failed, hence, the desperation to engage in an attempt to discredit the process that has been acclaimed as the best in our political history.

He said: “Such nervousness in the deflated party has led to a renewed attempt at smear campaign with spurious allegations against our presidential candidate; a defeatist approach that shows that the APC and the Buhari presidency are afraid of the Atiku candidacy and have reached their wits end, well ahead of the elections.

“The claims by APC of vote buying at our national convention, is therefore, not only false but completely unfounded and symptomatic of a party that has totally lost bearing and now engaged in rumour mongering.

“Unlike the APC that has an unpopular presidential candidate, who has failed in governance, foisted on it without an election, the whole world watched with excitement as 12 aspirants contested the PDP presidential primary, where delegates drawn from respected Nigerians across the country, freely voted for a candidate of their choice.”

The opposition party noted that the APC is suffering from a pre-defeat trauma, while warning the party and its presidential candidate to steer clear of PDP and get ready for issue-based campaign ahead of the 2019 elections.

Ologbondiyan said: “To the amusement of Nigerians, the APC conducted a non-contested convention in which it declared President Buhari as ‘winner’ with over 14 million fictitious votes.

“In their desperation, they forgot that ‘winning’ as a word connotes contest. Strangely, the APC declared a candidate as having won when there was never a contest – a charade by a deceptive party with duplicitous leaders.”

The PDP said it is instructive to state that their attempt at smear campaign against its candidate would fail as Nigerians are interested only in the candidate that can make a turnaround of the ugly situation the Buhari presidency has sunk the country into.