Leon Usigbe – Abuja
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has admonished President Muhammadu Buhari to assuage the pain and anguish being experienced by Nigerians over the current cash crunch in the country by demanding that leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) including its presidential candidate and governors immediately release the hundreds of billions of new naira they allegedly intercepted and hoarded for the purpose of vote buying.
The call was made in a statement issued on Thursday by Debo Ologunagba, its National Publicity Secretary, which noted that the President had in his nationwide address 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.
According to the statement, it is therefore clear that the PDP has no part in the entire process.
The statement added: “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 has 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.
“Our party sympathizes with Nigerians over the pain, torture and distress brought upon our citizens by the selfish, vicious and anti-people APC leaders. The PDP again salutes the resilience of Nigerians in the face of APC-induced suffering.
“The APC and its presidential candidate must come to terms with the fact that Nigerians are determined to vote in the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, come February 25, 2023. The threats and incitement to violence by the Tinubu campaign cannot deter the people.”
The PDP called on Buhari to put every measure in place to guarantee peaceful, free, fair, transparent and credible 2023 general elections, saying that as “Nigerians are ready to go to the polls in their determination to vote in Atiku Abubakar as the next President of our country.”
