PDP: People will Resist APC’s Move to Take South-south

PDP: People will Resist APC’s Move to Take South-south

Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja and Segun James in Lagos

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has cried out that the All Progressives Congress (APC) is determined to take the South-south states by force, but warned that the people would resist the move.

The National Vice Chairman, South-south zone of the PDP, Emmanuel Ogidi, stated this while fielding questions on the political situation in the geopolitical zone on Arise News, a sister broadcast arm of THISDAY Newspaper.

Ogidi said because of the desperation of the APC to take some strategic states and make inroads into the region, the party would use violence to achieve its goals.

“Surely there will be violence during the election. The strategy of the APC is violence, but the people will surely react,” he said.

While unwilling to disclose his party’s strategy to contain the APC, Ogidi insisted that “we are going to contain them. You can’t just sit down and take power. We are going to contain them,” he declared.

He accused the APC government of playing politics with Boko Haram issues even though it is almost overwhelming the country, adding that the fight against the insurgent group has become a business for some people.

He stressed that the Boko Haram insurgency was festering because people have turned it to business.

Ogidi said,”how do you expect a president – a former general in the army and how he is handling Boko Haram, You are playing politics with Boko Haram; people are eating money from it. It is a serious business; that is why it is being prolonged.

“They keep using all kinds of language – ‘we have contained it,’ ‘we have degraded it’. For the government to have allowed the Boko Haram terrorist issue to be festering shows Nigeria is not a serious country.”

“They are playing politics with Boko Haram. It is also business for some people. People are making money from it. That is why it is being prolonged.

He decried the security situation in the country under the APC government, saying that the party has no answer to the country’s problems.

“There are assault rifles all over the place because we want to rule by force. We are not at war, but at war with ourselves because we want to rule by force. You can’t rule by force because power comes from God.”

Ogidi faulted the call for a state of emergency in Zamfara State by the governor, saying “because the APC has no candidate in Zamfara State, that is why the governor is calling for a state of emergency; it will not work.”

Ogidi also accused the former governor of Delta State, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, of being ungrateful for leaving the PDP for the APC.

He said Uduaghan benefitted from the PDP for 16 unbroken years, having risen from being a commissioner to the secretary to the state government and later governor.

According to him, the only reason Uduaghan left the party was because he was scarred of a contest in a primary with Senator James Manager, adding that the former governor wanted the position given to him on a platter of gold, but was resisted by Governor Ifeanyi Okowa who advised that all contestants for the position should test their popularity at the primaries.

Asked what makes him think Nigerians have forgiven PDP for allegedly mismanaging the country for 16 years after the party’s apology, the party’s vice chairman said the change that Nigerians craved for was a mirage.

Ogidi noted, “One of the primary assignments of a government is to cater for the welfare of the people and also to secure the people. Are you experiencing that today? No.

”When we (PDP) were doing it, we thought everything was going on well; we lost touch with the people, but today the change people thought they could not get it, they can’t find it that’s why I said they have forgiven us.”

Ogidi stressed that the most precious asset of the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led federal government is their ability to lie with ease.

He said, “O‎ne thing you can give to them ‎is that they are liars; they lie too much‎, even lie to themselves. ‎By the time you allow them to keep lying, before you know it you will be in trouble. They said they will fix light within six months; now they couldn’t do it.

“They said they are going to fix the country, but Nigerians are now hungry. The government in power said it didn’t give time frame to fix the economy.”

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