By Banji Ayoola
The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has alleged that the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, keeps adjusting and re-adjusting the time-table for screening its presidential aspirants and party primaries in order to impose an anointed presidential candidate through what it described as an arm twisting process called consensus.
Besides, it accused Ondo State Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu of handpicking and distributing his party’s tickets to individuals considered as loyal party members in the just concluded state assembly and House of Representatives primaries, a process which it said would result in a tragic outcome for the APC in the 2023 elections.
The party made the allegations in a statement on Friday by its spokesman in the state, Mr Kennedy Ikantu Peretei, which was titled “Akeredolu’s misrule in Ondo State (18): Handpicks candidates for 2023 elections.”
According to the statement: “Whereas, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) held credible, transparent and peaceful party primaries across Nigeria, for State Houses of Assembly and National Assembly, the APC keeps adjusting and re-adjusting the time-table for screening presidential aspirants and party primaries, all with the intension to foist anointed presidential candidate through arm twisting process called consensus.
“If General Mohammadu Buhari(rtd) was able to pull through with this kind of anomaly during the heavily compromised APC National Convention in ‘Selecting’ national officers for the party, it may not be a tea party for choosing who becomes the standard bearer for the 2023 elections.”
It said: “Anyway, what to expect in Akeredolu’s zoo is a child’s play compared to the dinner Buhari and his team of power hungry hawks will serve in Abuja where the APC will be interned after the consensus primaries.
“Recall also that, all presidential aspirants have voluntarily signed a document, announcing their withdrawal from the presidential race. About nine of such aspirants, all of whom paid a princely N100m for Nomination Forms have stepped down for Dr. Ahmad Lawan, the incumbent Senate President.
“Senator Uzor Kalu while announcing his withdrawal from the race took an entire paragraph to congratulate Lawan. Those who are blinded by their presidential ambitions will receive their sight at the APC burial ceremony.”
Noting that the next couple of days would be very interesting, as what it called the contraption called APC would have finally extinguished itself, the PDP said that in Ondo State for example, “one does not need the prophetic exactitude of a Jewish prophet to know that, Rotimi Akeredolu led APC will have a tragic outing in the 2023 general elections.”
The statement said: “Not many supporters and faithfuls of the APC in Ondo State could come to terms with the audacity and high handedness with which Rotimi Akeredolu, SAN and his man Friday, Engr. Ade Adetimehin, Ondo State APC Chairman, who distributed party tickets to individuals that Akeredolu considers as loyal party members.
“All 26 House of Assembly candidates were handpicked by Akeredolu. Those who insisted on party primaries were blackmailed and intimidated to withdraw. When members of his party complained, an official statement was issued by his media handlers to muscle up dissenting voices, dismissing them as not appreciating the trouble Akeredolu takes in holding the party together.
“On the appointed date for the Primaries, Delegates were shocked as designated venues were desolate. Needless to say that, all aggrieved persons are waiting to participate in the final burial rites of the APC.
“A particular case in point is Ondo East Local Government where one of Akeredolu’s Commissioners was accused of using thugs and guns to kidnap delegates opposed to the choice of the Governor. The drama is still unfolding.
“Across the State, most persons are awaiting how all these will play out shortly. It is unbelievable that a man who emerged through a party primaries where he never stood any chance of winning can turn around to act god in the affairs of those who have endured him in the last six years.”
According to the PDP: “How Rotimi Akeredolu succeeded to silence everybody to perpetrate this level of impunity in a party of men and women some of whom have been in party politics for decades is very surprising. How he subdued all voices of reason will make an interesting reading in future.
“What cannot be said with finality is whether or not Akeredolu will be able to prevail on his brother Governor, Supreme Court Governor, Hope Uzodinma of Imo State to handpick Ada Owere Betty Akeredolu for the Imo East Senatorial seat.
“If he fails to accomplish that, all these efforts will not be worthwhile, because, the day another governor is sworn in on 24th February, 2025, that is when Akeredolu will realise that, indeed, the people of Ondo State have merely tolerated him. It will be a huge compensation, if by any means lawful, he can make Betty a Senator come 2023.
For now, while all ears are to the ground, we urge Akededolu to shun actions that will consign internal democracy to the dustbin. It is unlawyerly and primitive to think people can be taken for a ride in this crude manner.”
