…asks Nigerians to channel their energy into voting out APC
The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar has urged 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.
He also appealed to 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.
The PDP presidential candidate in a statement issued Thursday said the country had witnessed upheavals in different parts of the country in which lives were lost and property destroyed in recent days.
He 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.”
