Feb. 12, 2014
The All Progressives Congress (APC) has accused the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of using public funds to lure back some of the federal lawmakers who defected from the ruling party to the APC. The APC condemned the strategy as political horse trading carried too far.
In a statement issued in Lagos on Tuesday, the APC’s interim National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed, said the PDP had, in a show of desperation, rolled out a mouth-watering enticement package that promises two million US dollars to each senator who returns to the PDP and one million dollars to each member of the House of Representatives. In addition, he said the PDP was offering $10 million to each “leader” who abandons the APC and returns to the PDP. The statement alleged that the price tag for the federal legislators from Rivers State was even higher, at five million dollars each.
Even so, the APC spokesman said there was no cause for alarm, asserting that no amount of inducement would stop the change on the horizon since, according to Mr. Mohammed, the long-suffering people of Nigeria were ready and eager to vote out the PDP in next year’s elections.
The APC described the five members of the House of Representatives who reportedly took the killer bait and returned to the PDP as dirty traitors, adding that when they defected to the APC, they were neither forced to do so nor given any incentive beyond the rare opportunity offered them to be a part of the looming change. Mr. Mohammed said he hoped the double defectors would declare the blood money they collected from the PDP to those who voted them into office, challenging them to pretend to be democratic by sharing the money with voters.
“Nigerians can now see why their country has gone broke; why the allocation to states from the Federation Account has continued to dwindle, and why infrastructures have either remained decrepit or non-existent. It is not difficult to imagine the number of bore holes that 10 million dollars can sink, or how far such a huge amount will go in building cottage hospitals and health clinics,” the APC stated.
The party added, “Things are bound to get worse in the days ahead because the desperate PDP will, more and more, use public funds to try to change the course of history. We therefore urge Nigerians to remain resolute in the face of what will be a wave of inducements never before seen in these climes, because there is no going back on the plan to vote out the PDP next year and save Nigeria from a rapacious and inept leadership.”
