*Compel APC leaders to release hoarded naira notes, PDP tells Buhari
Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja
The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar has urged Nigerians not to let their frustrations manifest into violence as a result of the scarcity of the naira, saying they should instead channel such energy into voting out the All Progressives Congress (APC) on February 25.
This was just as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday called on President Muhammadu Buhari to compel APC leaders, including the party’s presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu and governors to immediately release the hundreds of billions of new naira notes allegedly intercepted and hoarded by them for vote buying purposes.
Continuing, Atiku, in a statement issued yesterday, said the country had witnessed upheavals in different parts of the country in which lives were lost and property destroyed in recent days.
Atiku expressed condolences to the families of all those who lost their dear ones during the violent protest and riots in some cities due to the scarcity of the naira.
According to him, “this crisis may be coming on the heels of the currency swap, but it is pertinent to remind us that it is a culmination of the frustrations of Nigerians arising from the maladministration of the ruling All Progressives Congress in the past seven years plus.”
Atiku noted that it was easy for political expediency for the APC that had brought the country, “to this cul de sac to want to hoodwink Nigerians into believing that the crisis was created by others.”
He added: “Truth be told, the crisis that we are witnessing today was conceived, given birth to and nurtured by the ruling APC. Indeed, it was long in coming.
“We are all witnesses to the myriad of problems that Nigerians have had to endure as a result of the cluelessness of the APC, which came into government with no idea of a policy direction.
“We are witnesses to the massive erosion of jobs; hunger and multidimensional poverty; unabated fuel scarcity; deteriorating security that has created an industry of kidnapping and massacre of defenceless citizens; free fall of the Naira; ASUU strike which kept students at home for prolonged periods of time and a general sense of hopelessness.”
Atiku stressed that the crises due to the policy of the ruling party’s redesign of the naira, was only the tipping point.
He noted that the least the ruling APC could do was to take responsibility for its own policy, “and the challenges that have followed its implementation, even as they collectively work at addressing those challenges.”
Atiku stated: “My dear brothers and sisters, I understand your frustrations, but I urge you to be calm. Do not let your frustrations manifest into violence. Rather, you should channel that energy into voting out the ruling APC in the elections of 25 February and 11 March. That’s the only way to safeguard our collective efforts to Recover and Rebuild Nigeria.”
The PDP presidential candidate assured that, “a new day beckons, and together as one, a Nigeria of everyone’s dream would be enthroned.”
Meanwhile, the PDP said releasing funds allegedly stashed by APC leaders would go a long way to assuage the pain and anguish being experienced by Nigerians over the current cash crunch in the country.
The National Publicity Secretary of the party, Debo Ologunagba in a statement issued yesterday, said it was instructive to note that Buhari in his address to the nation yesterday, acknowledged that the naira redesign and swap policies are programmes of the APC administration which is also completely in control of the production and circulation of the new notes.
He said it was therefore clear that the PDP had no part in the entire process.
Ologunagba said: “Our party had earlier alerted on how APC leaders allegedly sabotaged the system and diverted the new naira notes so as to create widespread social unrest to justify their plan to derail the 2023 general elections and truncate our democracy.
“The PDP had also exposed how APC governors are allegedly warehousing the new Naira notes in facilities in Lagos, Kano, Kogi, Kaduna, Imo and other States of the country for the purpose of vote buying in the presidential election.
“In the same vein, our party raised alarm on how the Tinubu/Shettima Campaign had orchestrated the current cash crunch as a strategy to cause crisis while inciting Nigerians to insurrection with the view to truncating the electoral process having come to the reality of the fact that the APC and its Presidential Candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu have been rejected by Nigerians ahead of the polls.”
The spokesperson said the PDP sympathised with Nigerians over the pain, torture and distress brought on them, “by the selfish and vicious APC leaders.”
The PDP saluted the resilience of Nigerians in the face of APC-induced suffering.
It noted that the APC and its presidential candidate must come to terms with the fact that Nigerians were determined to vote in the PDP Presidential Candidate, Atiku Abubakar, come February 25, 2023.
It alleged that the threats and incitement to violence by the Tinubu Campaign cannot deter the people.
The PDP, therefore called on the president to put every measure in place to guarantee peaceful, free, fair, transparent and credible 2023 general election.
