A former governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, has accused some members of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP of hindering the progressive agenda of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC.
The former governor, who is also the national leader of the ruling APC, said in a statement released by his media office in Abuja on Sunday that many of those in critical positions in government agencies and ministries were fifth columnists in the party.
He also accused the PDP of planning to loot the national treasury for 60 years before it was defeated by the APC in 2014.
“I must mention something of high concern; our progressive agenda has been hampered because elements of the PDP remain embedded in many agencies and ministries so crucial to daily governance.
“They have been fifth columnists, undermining our policies at every turn. While impeding reform, they also plot the comeback of their reactionary brethren to power.
“This is something we should no longer abide. Our party teams with competent, reform-minded people who would perform admirably in these positions.
“It is time we swept out the PDP remnants and put in position, people who actually care about the citizens.
“Some among us feared that today we would be joined by the presence of rain. Don’t fret. Let the rain fall if it must. For it is a sign of a great washing. We, the party of the broom, should understand more than anyone else what this represents.
“The rain symbolises that we are to wash away the remaining shards of the old, unjust politics so that we can set forth a better path for Nigeria.”
He said many people had thought that the merger by different political parties that gave birth to the APC would be short-lived.
He said many had also believed that the party would not survive when it was formed in 2014.
Tinubu alleged that those against the formation of the ruling party employed many tactics to frustrate its emergence.
He said, “The doubters who gave the APC no chance of existence or of continued survival have got their reply in full. Their envious prayers and complaints have been answered in the reverse.
“They wanted to see the end of us and our pursuit of good governance for Nigeria. You should not forget, as I shall never forget, the strong efforts they made to stop us in the courts.
“There were 12 cases brought trying to stop us from merging, from registering the new party, then attempting to bar our candidate from the election.
“Lacking the courage to face the democratic will of the people, they tried to misuse the courts as a weapon against democracy.
“We thank the judiciary for following the letter and spirit of the constitution by dismissing this dirty dozen of malicious cases filed against us.
“With their schemes foiled, those who tried to destroy us must bear witness to the destruction of their edifice of corrupt governance and their dreams of unjust domination of our nation.
“While they planned a lifetime of greedy enrichment by looting the people’s resources and the public treasury for 60 years, we moved to reform the economy to bring development and aid to the poor.”
Meanwhile, PDP has decried as extremely wicked, reprehensible and unacceptable, an alleged plot by the APC to clamp down, victimise and sack workers as well as appointees in ministries, departments and agencies ahead of the 2019 presidential election.
It said Nigerians were terrified when Tinubu at the party’s national convention allegedly revealed the party’s plan to undertake a blanket victimisation of federal civil servants and appointees perceived to favour or harbour opinions different from those of the APC.
The National Publicity Secretary of the party, Kola Ologbondiyan, said in a statement that the PDP’s investigation revealed that part of the plot was to frame such public servants as fifth columnists as openly suggested by Tinubu and hang spurious allegations on them for political reasons.
“The PDP totally condemns this vicious scheme to victimise our federal workers or cause any one of them to suffer any hurt because of APC’s re-election quest.
“We insist that this desperation for power by the APC should not, in any way or under any guise whatsoever, lead to the victimisation of workers at any level across our country.
“Under our laws as a nation, Nigerian workers, like other citizens, have the right to opinion and choice of who to vote for at elections and nobody has the powers to molest or threaten them in the exercise of such rights.”
