Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu

Onyebuchi Ezigbo

The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) Monday accused the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of plotting  to undermine the economic progress of states under its control by seeking to deprive them of the support of banks.

The party said the plan was to portray all ACN states as financially reckless and to get the banks, including the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), financial institutions and regulatory authorities to withdraw financial support to all ACN states through a sustained campaign of blackmail, calumny and arm twisting.

In a statement issued  by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said the first phase of this plot is for the PDP to make available to the  Ministers of Finance and National Planning and Director-General of the Debt Management Office false representation of the debt profiles of ACN states.

The claims, he added will be accompanied by wild and unsubstantiated allegations  of financial recklessness and improprieties against the states for deliberation at the next meeting of the Federal Executive Council (FEC).

According to the party, the aim is to enlist the support of the CBN governor to table the contrived damning indictment before the Bankers Committee who in turn will unsuspectingly withdraw their financial support from all ACN states.

“It will thereafter manipulate its appointees at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and other relevant regulatory authorities to block the ACN states access to the capital market even as the same Federal Government itself had resorted to the same Capital Market to fund its own deficit budget,” it said.

The party recalled that a similar attempt was made under the administration of Bola Ahmed Tinubu in Lagos State

It added that but for the financial ingenuity and resourcefulness of the former governor, the plot would have succeeded in arresting the phenomenal success of that administration.

“The recent unrelenting and sustained smear campaign against the ACN governors by the PDP is nothing but a prelude to this grand conspiracy to financially cripple all ACN states .

“Rather than emulate the giant strides of the ACN states especially in the areas of security, youth employment, infrastructural development, and make life more meaningful and bearable for the millions of citizens under its watch, the PDP has true to character resorted to this evil plan to stunt the growth of the ACN states and condemn the people of these states to a life of misery, poverty, chaos and hardship as is the norm in almost all PDP led states,” the party noted.

ACN warned  the PDP-led Federal Government to immediately retrace its steps or be prepared to  face a people’s revolt and anger the like of which it has never witnessed before.

It also warned that the indigenes of all ACN-led states, “will rise in with one voice to resist with all means at their disposal any attempt by the clueless PDP-led Federal Government to truncate the unprecedented era of peace, progress and development currently being enjoyed in these states after the locust years of the PDP.”