By Abiola Olawale
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has once again ignited a political firestorm, accusing the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) of allegedly orchestrating a sinister plot to dismantle democracy and impose a “one-party regime.”
The opposition party in a fierce press statement issued on Thursday, Nigeria’s Democracy Day, called on Nigerians to resist what it calls an alarming assault on the nation’s democratic foundations.
In the statement issued by Debo Ologunagba, PDP’s National Publicity Secretary, the party also accused the APC-led government of weaponizing poverty, stifling the media, and colluding with a “rubber-stamp” National Assembly and a compromised judiciary to crush opposition and manipulate electoral outcomes.
The statement reads in part: “More distressing is that the APC-led Presidency has remained unaccountable while colluding with the corrupt, rubber stamp APC leadership in the National Assembly and certain compromised Judicial officers at very high places to undermine the sovereignty of the people ostensibly to clear the path for a totalitarian system in our country.
“The brazen resort to State Capture as exemplified in the subversion of the Will of the people in the 2024 Edo State Governorship election, the widely condemned overthrow of a democratically elected government and imposition of a Sole Administrator in Rivers State in blatant violation of the clear provisions of the 1999 Constitution among other Constitutional infractions signpost a clear and present danger to our democracy.
“June 12 Democracy Day, therefore, embodies the struggle by Nigerians against an oppressive, despotic, and lawless system driven by impunity, high-level deception, and reckless anti-people tendencies as being witnessed under the APC administration.
“It also represents the insistence by Nigerians for a system that is accountable to the people, operates on the Rule of Law and democratic principles of freedom, justice, fairness, equity, credible elections, national cohesion, transparency, and accountability in government, which Chief MKO Abiola personified and died for.
“These are the democratic values which Nigerians enjoyed under the Peoples Democratic Party. Painfully all have eluded the nation since the coming of the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) masquerading as a political party, the APC.
“The PDP therefore demands that the APC administration respects the memory of Chief Abiola, the law and sovereignty of the Nigerian people by adhering to the Principle of Separation of Powers, end the intrusion in the activities of the National Assembly and other Democracy Institutions, particularly the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the Judiciary, allow for a free press, commit to credible elections, be truthful, transparent and review all its poverty weaponizing policies.”
