APC: PDP Will Return Nigeria to Subsidy Crisis

Meanwhile, the ruling party has also rejected the claim by the PDP that Atiku will crash fuel price if elected in 2019, alleging that the opposition party wants to plunge the country into another subsidy crisis.

PDP had promised that the country would witness a crash in price of fuel from the current pump price of N145 per litre down to N90.

APC’s Nabena, in a statement, accused PDP of pushing for a return to the inglorious days of subsidy scam. It said there was no way such crash in cost of petroleum products would happen without incurring huge subsidy bills.

“The reported promise by the presidential candidate of the PDP, to reduce the pump price of petrol from the prevailing N145 per litre to N90 per litre, sounds like a cheap political gist designed to hoodwink unsuspecting voters ahead of the 2019 election,” APC said.

APC said that a close study of the well entrenched and verifiable market fundamentals clearly indicates that the promise is virtually anchored on fiction and limited knowledge of the petroleum industry.

It said that as at the moment, petrol cost under recovery was fluctuating between N60-N70 per litre propelled by vaunting crude oil price of around $81 per barrel, adding, “The only way the bogus promise could be possible albeit unreasonably, is through the re-introduction of the PDP styled subsidy payment schism, which almost bled the nation to death.”

“It is shocking to note that at a period when the nation is looking ahead to embrace the eventual deregulation of the downstream sub-sector of the oil and gas industry to allow for equitable private sector participation and break the seeming NNPC monopoly of fuel importation, the PDP is plotting a reversal of the spiraling wheel of progress.

“No doubt if the PDP had been clairvoyant enough in its long years’ of ruler ship to fix the local refineries and make them work for the benefit of Nigerians, the country would have reaped bountifully from the gains of higher price of crude oil while optimising the benefits that comes with local processing of its God given natural resource.”

Meanwhile, the PDP has said that the fretting by the Buhari’s administration and the ruling party over the strategy meetings by Atiku is defeatist and a clear sign that they are already petrified ahead of the 2019 electoral contest. 

The National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, in a statement yesterday in Abuja, said the ruling APC was panicking over its strategy meetings because it did not only fail to deliver on the promises it made in the past, but is also completely bereft of ideas required to solve the problems it caused, even as it knows that it cannot drive our country in this 21st century.

The party said since the emergence of Atiku as PDP’s presidential candidate, the panic-stricken Buhari presidency and the APC had abandoned governance for smear campaign and now frets over the strategy meetings because they know that the outcome will dismount their incompetent, deceitful and disconnected administration. 

 It said, “Is it not ludicrous that the APC has become so disoriented that it is now issuing statements about the venue of our meetings which does not offend any section of our laws, and for which it has now rented itself to lies and spurious allegations?

“By its statement, the APC has demonstrated its confusion, lack of organisation and tact to manage itself and the responsibilities of governance; the very reason our country has been in dire strait since the last three and half years of the Buhari administration.”

The opposition party noted that APC and Buhari were entangled in enough personal and collective crisis, while counseling them to face their problems instead of dabbling into the issue of venue for its meetings.

It said, “If President Buhari and the APC had sat down to draw up strategies for governance, our nation would not be facing the economic, social and security woes that have brought her to its knees in the last three and half years.

“The PDP and our presidential candidate will therefore not allow a dysfunctional and rejected party like the APC to distract us from our partnership with Nigerians in the all-important mission to remove the incompetent administration of President Buhari.”