By Baron Ike
The All Progressives Congress (APC) has said it is responsible for the crises rocking the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
It did in a statement on Tuesday, February 21 by the party’s publicity secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi who said the attention of the APC had been drawn to a statement credited to the Senator Ahmed Makarfi-led faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) alleging that the APC is responsible for the action of the Police, which prevented some members of that faction from meeting at the International Conference Centre (ICC) in Abuja, initial venue of their stakeholders’ meeting.
The APC wrote: “In that same statement, the Markarfi-led faction of the PDP also alleged that the APC had somehow influenced the Appeal Court decision which ruled against it in its quest to be named as the authentic PDP by the court.
“Neither of these allegations is true in any respect. The Police do not take instructions from the APC. The Police themselves have explained why they stopped the Markarfi group from meeting at the ICC. If the factional PDP is dissatisfied with the Police explanation, they could seek further clarifications from the Police or pursue alternative means of redress.
“So far, the Makarfi group has not faulted the Police or provided any proof for its allegations against the APC, which we find quite surprising, considering that Makarfi and his group have in their ranks, individuals who are sufficiently experienced to know that without any evidence, such allegations could easily be dismissed as baseless and therefore be ignored by all right thinking members of the public, including our party.
“The reason we have not simply ignored the wild allegations is because we are imperiled by utterances and conducts that attack the integrity and independence of our judicial system. Every Nigerians should be worried by the behaviour of the various PDPs which is capable of eroding the confidence Nigerians in our judicial system. Even as they battle themselves for survival, we urge restraint in the interest of our democracy.
“We wish to reiterate that the APC has no interest in the internal crisis that is consuming the PDP, which is only one of several opposition parties in the country. We pray for them to put their house in order soon because as a political party that was once in the opposition, we believe that democracy is better served when the opposition is alive. However, we also know the PDP can only begin to take steps towards recovery if they stop peddling conspiracy theories and blaming imaginary enemies.”