Expressing disappointment with what it termed the lack of democratic discipline by Buhari, the party faulted the non participation of the President-Elect in Christian and Islamic prayer sessions over the weekend.

Buhari had travelled to the United Kingdom on Friday to take a rest after weeks of consultations and crowded post-election engagements with local and international groups and personalities.

However, a statement on Sunday by the National Publicity of the PDP, Olisa Metuh, said Buhari owed Nigerians explanations on why he snubbed the prayer sessions scheduled for Friday and Sunday for Muslims and Christians respectively to usher in four years of his in-coming administration, as well as the embarrassing protocol gaffe and low-down treatment that characterized his visit to the British Prime Minister David Cameron last Saturday.

The party said “it was disgraceful that due to poor coordination and crass ineptitude in the handling of issues, the President-elect was left almost stranded while waiting for about thirty minutes before he was received by the British leader” and wondered if such is a foretaste of the muddling to be experienced under the All Progressives Congress (APC)’s administration.

“Nigerians, as citizens of a sovereign nation were thoroughly embarrassed when they saw their President-elect cheapened and kept waiting at the door of 10 Downing Street to see the British Prime Minister due to shoddy arrangements by his handlers.

“Indeed, they are becoming increasingly worried about the frightening unpreparedness of the APC for governance and the huge embarrassments they have been attracting to our nation. We know that the APC has been lying over issues.

“We also know that the APC and the President-elect have been flip-flopping and reneging on their campaign promises; but to embarrass the nation by embarking on such a sensitive visit without adequate preparations is shameful and completely unacceptable.

“We share the fear of well-meaning Nigerians on how a party which cannot adequately handle a simple task of organizing a diplomatic outing will effectively administer a country as complex as Nigeria.

“The APC has continued to give signals that it lacks capacity to face the challenges of governance. Such has been evidenced in the uneasiness of the President-elect who in apparent loss of confidence in himself has started reneging on his promises of quick fixes while confessing in a meeting with APC governors-elect on May 5, 2015 that he has ‘started nervously to explain to people that Rome was not built in a day’.

“Instead of settling down for governance and working out how to fulfill its promises of making the naira the same in value with the dollar, paying N5 million monthly to 25 million poor Nigerians, providing electricity on 24/7 basis, providing free meals for school children and allowances for discharged but unemployed youth corps members among others, the APC is busy inventing excuses for failure and blaming everyone else but themselves. We hope they will not blame the PDP for their Saturday’s embarrassing outing at 10 Downing Street.

“Furthermore, we find it curious and more than a co-incidence that the nation is experiencing an acute shortage of fuel and electricity supply at this point in time, when such has not been the case under the current PDP-led administration. We ask, are there some forces sabotaging the system to create an impression that the APC is inheriting poor infrastructure and complete system breakdown?

“Is this also part of the larger plot to embarrass and defame the PDP-led administration in an attempt to justify APC’s excuses for failure”

The party insisted that despite the challenges of insecurity and global economic recession that negatively affected many other nations, its administration had in the last 16 years worked very hard in repositioning critical sectors of the polity and laying strong infrastructure backbone that any prepared and result oriented in-coming administration can comfortably leverage on.

It asked the APC to get ready to apply its much-mouthed manifesto or be bold to apologise to Nigerians for presenting false messianic posture and making false promises to them.

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It stated that the APC had begun moves to procure and compromise some stakeholders in the elections, including the Independent National Electoral Commission and security personnel, “to bear false witness and doctor electoral materials against the PDP at the tribunal.”

The PDP National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, who addressed a press conference in Abuja on Tuesday, said the APC should be held responsible should there be any breakdown of law and order in Rivers, Delta and Akwa-Ibom states.

According to him, the APC is instigating crisis and inciting the people while mobilising resources to arm-twist the judiciary “ostensibly to torpedo the will of the people in these states.”

This, he said, was in addition to sponsoring negative publications in some sections of the media, laced with false claims and distortion of election figures to suit their nefarious plans of swaying public opinion and the course of justice against the PDP in these states.

“We know that the main of aim behind APC’s desperation to take over these three states is their belief that they are strategic to the PDP and that taking them away will further weaken and undermine our party and accelerate the quest for a one-party state in our country,” Metuh stated.

He drew the attention of the judiciary, INEC and security authorities to the alleged scheme by the APC to drag their institution and men into the criminal plot, urging the institutions to closely monitor their officials involved in the elections.

He said, “In particular, our findings show that in Delta, Rivers and Akwa-Ibom states, the APC machinery is working round the clock to ensure that it upturn the victory of the PDP and the mandate freely given to us by the people in these states.

“We are aware of the clandestine moves by the APC to procure and compromise some stakeholders in the elections including INEC and security personnel to bear false witness and doctor electoral materials against the PDP at the tribunal.”

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Governor Theodore Orji, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, PDP National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, Minister of State for Defence, Col Austin Akobundu, and some executives of the PDP in the state stormed the INEC office in Umuahia – venue of the collation exercise for the election – to demand the reversal of the decision.

The state Returning Officer and Vice Chancellor, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Prof. Benjamin Ozumba, had cancelled results of Isiala-Ngwa North, Osisioma and Obimgwa Local Government Areas, citing widespread electoral malpractices, violence, ballot box snatching and reports of independent foreign observers that monitored the exercise.

Announcing the cancellation, Ozumba said, “We are here to uphold the rule of law and the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. By the power vested in me as the state collation and returning officer, I hereby cancel results from the following local governments; Obingwa, Isiala-Ngwa North and Osisioma.

“This is based on the evidence before me and the provisions of the constitution and Electoral Act.”

Ahamdi Nweke, the APGA agent at the collation centre had argued that there were no elections in Osisioma LGA, coupled with cases of electoral violence and ballot box snatching in other places.

The PDP agent, Solomon Ogunji, while reacting to the cancellation, said it was unheard of that result of an election would be cancelled based on evidence from foreign observers and social media.

According to him, his party will not accept the decision.

Abaribe insisted that the collation exercise would not continue until the decision was reversed.

Meanwhile, the Resident Electoral Commissioner, Prof. Selina Oko, left the collation centre and held a closed-door meeting with the Governor, Metuh and Abaribe.

Ozumba attempted to continue with the collation exercise, but was stopped by PDP stalwart, who had flooded the venue, insisting that the exercise could not continue until their demands were met.

Ozumba was left with no option than to leave the collation centre, bringing the collation exercise to a halt.

During the course of the forced break, Nweke granted a press interview, where he accused the PDP of electoral violence, malpractice and falsification of results.

Ogunji, the PDP agent, denied all the allegations made by the APGA agent, wondering why an election that had produced members of state House of Assembly would be cancelled at the governorship level.

“These results have been declared at the ward and local government levels. We cited Jega’s action during the collation of the results of presidential election that you cannot present petition during the collation exercise, especially when the results have been announced at the local governments. So, the learned professor cannot take decision based on the prayer of a single party,” he said.

Abaribe said he could not allow the Ngwa people, whom he represents at the Senate, to be disenfranchised by the action of the Returning Officer.

“Even the case of Rivers State, where a committee was set up to investigate the allegations, the result was allowed to stand,” he said.

On why they stormed the collation center, he said they only came to see the REC and had to enter the collation center since they were told that she was at the venue.

On resumption of collation, Ozumba reversed his earlier decision, citing order from above, to the delight of the PDP and it’s officials.

He, however, said those areas, where there were issues with the results, would be cancelled.

This again generated another round of arguments, especially when attempts were made to reconsider results from Osisioma LGA.

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The party said that the it cannot go for a national convention to ratify someone who has not indicated interest to contest.

Addressing Journalists at the Party’s National Secretariat, PDP National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh said that the October 30 closing date for the sale of expression of interest and nomination forms will not be extended by a minute, adding that the time is 6 pm and that the party was not contemplating extending the date.

He said, “The NWC today decided that the issue of the closing date for the collection of the nomination forms cannot be extended. It will not be extended, 6:PM, 30th of October, no party member can obtain forms for our congress and convention 2014 after the deadline, the last date is 30th of October and it will not be extended.”

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The party has therefore called for a full investigation into the activities of some officers of Ekiti state judiciary involved in the recent crisis in the state.

The PDP National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, in a statement on Tuesday described the underground plot by the APC to stop the inauguration of the clear winner of the Ekiti governorship election, Ayo Fayose as “a slap in the face of the people of Ekiti state, an assault on democracy and an attempt to rape the judiciary.”

Metuh said that no amount of machination by the APC will stop Fayose’s swearing-in in accordance with the desire of the people of Ekiti as expressed at the polls.

“In the past two weeks, we have witnessed series of lies, propaganda, threats and blackmail by the APC in their desperate bid to truncate the wish of the people. This desperate party has gone notches up in this awkward quest for power by inciting violence and outlandishly calling for the arrest of the state governor-elect.

“After losing roundly in an election widely acclaimed as one of the most credible in our recent history as a nation, the APC in its desperation for power has shamelessly designed a heinous plot to compromise certain judicial officers in order to stop the inauguration of Ayo Fayose as the democratically elected governor of Ekiti state.

“We have here in our hands, an attempt to re-enact the design where the same APC leaders under the defunct ACN sabotaged and truncated the popular mandate given to the PDP in the 2011 governorship election by the people of Osun and Ekiti States through the verdicts of certain judicial officers.

“It is no longer in doubt that the vanquished APC seeks to perpetuate itself in power in Ekiti. We hereby confirm that the current toxic plot by APC is to manipulate the judiciary, secure a pronouncement to stop the inauguration and pave the way for the swearing-in of the Speaker of the Ekiti state House of Assembly, who as Acting Governor, will superintend over the conduct of a fresh election where the APC will have the floor for unhindered manipulation.”

“We wish to sensitize Nigerians that it was in furtherance of this plot that the defeated Governor Kayode Fayemi ordered the Chief Judge of Ekiti state, Justice Ayo Daramola to transfer all pending cases relating to the governorship election, including those before the election petition tribunal outside state for trial.

“The directive is to ensure that the APC enjoys a field day, away from the people of Ekiti state in order to manipulate the process and actualize the boast by Governor Fayemi that his party will recover the state.

“This clear interference in the working of another arm of government portrays the APC leaders as desperate and with no regard for the tenets of democracy, the principle of separation of powers and the sacred will of their people.

“We are indeed taken aback that the same Governor Fayemi who was among the first Nigerians to congratulate the governor-elect, an action that earned him very wide commendation would now allow himself to be a tool in the hands of politicians who are desperate to truncate democracy and destroy the unity of his state.

“We have also noted the threat, blackmail and deployment of thugs by the APC to harass and unleash violence on the citizens of Ekiti state for supporting the governor-elect as well as sponsoring the publication of fabrications in a section of the media to tarnish his image.

“One of such is the widely publicized allegation that the governor-elect assaulted a judge only for Nigerians to discover that it was totally false.

“However, we wish to warn the APC that the people of Ekiti state have expressed their preference for the PDP by electing Ayo Fayose, therefore, no amount of blackmail, threat and propaganda will take away this sacred mandate.

“For the avoidance of doubts, our great party wishes to state categorically that it is determined to use all legal measures to defend the mandate overwhelmingly given to Ayo Fayose and no “jankara” court order can truncate the process of his swearing-in in accordance with the will and desire of the people of Ekiti State.

“The PDP therefore calls for full investigation into the activities of some officers of Ekiti state judiciary involved in the recent crisis in the state.

“In the interim, we stand by the people of Ekiti as they continue in their preparations for the swearing-in ceremony of Mr. Ayo Fayose as the duly elected governor which will mark the end of the misrule by the APC in Ekiti”, the PDP said.

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The Chairman of the assembly’s Committee on Information and Security, Baba Ibaku, told journalists on Sunday that Al-Makura would face the EFCC after his impeachment. “We have petitioned the EFCC and after our impeachment process, the governor will know how to defend himself,” he said.

Ibaku was reacting to an allegation by the All Progressives Congress’ Chairman in the state, Philip Shekwo, that the assembly members pocketed N7.78bn constituency allowance given to them by the state government in three years.”

He said that “The APC chairman does not have the moral right to ask us what we received either monthly or quarterly. It is only the people that voted us into office that have the mandate to do so.

“He (Shekwo) is not a member of our party and we are not members of his party. They (APC) are the people to tell us how much Al-Makura has collected in the last three years from the federation account and how much he has spent on projects.”

The lawmaker, who spoke on behalf of his colleagues, said the governor would explain to the EFCC how he spent the state’s allocations.

On the alleged misuse of constituency allowances given to the lawmakers, he said they were ready to defend themselves if invited by the EFCC.

EFCC Head of Media and Publicity , Wilson Uwujaren, however denied knowledge of any petition from the lawmakers, stressing that “Even if they have written a petition to the commission, I am not yet aware of it,” he added.

Meanwhile, the national leadership of the PDP has advised Al-Makura to face his problems, instead of engaging in what it called APC’s “out-worn antics of blaming the Presidency and the PDP for their self-inflicted woes.”

The PDP National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, in a statement on Sunday, said the governor should look inward and find answers to his challenges as the chief executive of his state.

It said the idea of promoting trite excuses of external influence, sponsoring protests as well as threatening and unleashing thugs on the state legislators would not solve his problem.

Restating that it has no hands in the state’s political development, the PDP said the impeachment move against Al-Makura remained a local issue in the state.

He added that the provisions of the 1999 Constitution were very clear on such processes. “Nigerians may recall that at the wake of the impeachment move in Narasawa State that we came out clearly to restate our non-involvement in the saga and went ahead to charge our lawmakers across the country to ensure that their actions were strictly guided by the provisions of the law.

“We have also challenged the governor and the APC to provide evidence of the alleged involvement of the Presidency or the PDP in the crisis.

“However, we are shocked that instead of focusing on finding answers to his problems which must be connected with the bad governance that has characterised APC-led administrations in the country, the Nasarawa State governor declared war on the lawmakers, while unleashing APC thugs on them and stopping them from carrying out their constitutional duties.”

The party said it was astonished with the “series of unfounded allegations, insults, blackmails and threats sponsored against the Presidency and the PDP.” which are aimed at subverting constitutional provisions.

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The latest statement from the PDP National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh read, “Our attention has been drawn to a unauthorized statement issued on behalf of the National Publicity Secretary of the PDP by his Special Assistant, Richard Ihediwa, congratulating the eldest son of the late Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Ado Bayero as the new Emir of Kano.

“Mr. Ihediwa relied on a false news flash on the AIT and issued a statement in that direction without approval from the National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh.

“This is completely embarrassing to the National Publicity Secretary and the entire leadership of the PDP.

“We hereby dissociate with the statement earlier issued and regret the embarrassment this may have caused the entire nation, the Kano Emirate and the good people of Kano state.”

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A statement issued by Olisa Metuh, the National Publicity Secretary of PDP in Abuja on Thursday, said that APC demonstrated this when it shunned a meeting called by the Federal Government on Thursday to find solution to the current security challenge.

“When we said that the All Progressive Congress (APC), as it is presently constituted aids and abets terror in Nigeria by omission and commission, some Nigerians doubted us.

“But what further proof can there be of the culpability of the APC than the decision of its governors to shun the National Security Council meeting called by the president to deliberate on ways to bring the sponsors of terror and their footmen to book?

“It is important to note that APC governors do not shun meetings where the Federal Government takes care of their financial interests. But as this meeting is meant to take care of the interests of Nigerians, they shunned it,” he said.

Metuh also accused the APC of not being happy with the news by the police and security agents that they were closing in on the perpetrators of the Nyanya blast.

“It is certainly more than curious that the APC governors, particularly those whose states are at the thick of the Boko Haram insurgency are the once who are trying to subvert meetings called to address the malaise.

“Nigerians should be conscious of their antics and read the body language of the APC. They may make the appropriate noises from time to time, but in the fight against terrorism, actions speak louder than word,’’ he said.

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The explosion which took place in Nyanya, a suburb of the nation’s capital, Abuja, saw over hundred persons feared dead, with several others, injured.

PDP said the attack was politically motivated and can be traced to the utterances and comments of those it termed, “desperate persons who seek to undermine and discredit the present administration and make the nation ungovernable for President Goodluck Jonathan by instituting a reign of terror against the people.”

In a statement by PDP National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, the party while “condemning the act as barbaric, monstrous and extremely wicked,” stressed that the party was shocked and has remained grief- stricken since it received the news of the gruesome attack and killing of Nigerians pursuing their legitimate endeavours.

Alleging that the APC should be held responsible over the sad and unfortunate incident, Metuh said, “We stand by our earlier statements that these attacks on our people are politically motivated by unpatriotic persons, especially those in the APC, who have been making utterances and comments, promoting violence and blood-letting as a means of achieving political control.

“Nigerians are also aware of utterances by certain APC governors which have been aimed at undermining our security forces and emboldening insurgents against the people.

“Those who have been promoting violence through their utterances can now see the monster they have created. They can now see the end product of their comments; a country flowing daily with the blood of the innocent.

The question is; how do they feel when they see the mangled and blood-soaked bodies of their victims? How do they feel when they hear the voices of the dying and the injured?

“Of course they feel nothing. Their hearts have been hardened and they are embittered by the fact that they have been rejected by the people.

They are bitter because the people have chosen to rally round the government they love and voted for; but must they chose the path of violence and bloodletting as a response to the wishes and aspiration of the people?

“The PDP weeps. We are indeed grief-stricken. Our hearts go out to the bereaved, especially those who have been orphaned and widowed and those now deprived of their bread winners by this evil act. We share in their pain, their anguish and their loss and pray that those behind their grief must not escape justice.

While urging all well meaning Nigerians to stand up and join President Goodluck Jonathan in his untiring efforts to check terrorism in the country, the PDP caution those fueling the attacks to retrace their steps, rid themselves of bitterness and desperation and seek forgiveness from God.

“The party, in solidarity with the people also shelved all official engagements while praying God to grant the bereaved the fortitude to bear the loss.”

Meanwhile, APC has condemned what it called an atrocious bomb blast and urged the Federal Government to urgently convene a national stakeholders’ security summit to help find a lasting solution to the spate of mindless killings in the country.

In a statement issued in Lagos on Monday by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed, the party expressed its shock and sadness at the savagery of the attack, while condoling with the families of those killed and praying for a quick recovery for the injured.

It said it is now obvious that all efforts so far to tackle the insurgency in the country have not yielded much fruits, meaning that this PDP-led Federal Government lacks the capacity and has clearly run out of ideas on how to tackle the violence.

”It is time for new thinking, new ideas to stop this insurgency before it consumes all of us. The attack, right on the outskirts of Abuja which has been spared this kind of spectacular strike since 2011 means those behind it are getting bolder and bolder, and it’s time to stop them,” it said.

APC said in the national interest and in the spirit of bipartisanship, it is willing and ready to be part of any positive efforts to end the daily loss of lives and the damage to property that seem to have hit a new high since the beginning of this year.

The party described as despicable the PDP’s attempt to trivialize a very serious issue and make the opposition the fall guy for its own egregious failure.

”The PDP and the government it leads at the centre should realise that this issue is beyond politics and partisanship, and should reach out to other stakeholders to help find a way to end the insurgency that has now defied all measures, including a state of emergency.

”Trying to blame the opposition for the attack, as the harebrained PDP has irresponsibly done even when the bodies of the victims are still lying in the morgue, cannot advance a genuine push to end the insurgency,” the party said.

It wondered whether the PDP’s ignoble accusation is part of a sinister motive to call the dog a bad name just to hang it.

”PDP is so desperate that it will stop at nothing to plunge Nigeria into chaos just to achieve its objective of clinging to power at all costs. Its baseless and infantile accusation, at a time of great national pain, may be a ploy to instigate a clampdown against the opposition.

”We are therefore calling on all our members, and indeed all the good people of Nigeria, to be vigilant in the days ahead,” the party said.

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The party, in a statement in Lagos by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed, said that 2014 would be a year of change for long suffering citizens, even as it accused the Peoples Democratic Party government of misrule in the last 14 years.

The APC said, ‘’Because this government (the President Goodluck Jonathan administration) has become numb to reason; because this government has deteriorated from cluelessness to hopelessness and because this government has totally lost any sense of direction, we say it is time for Nigerians to gird their loins and join hands with all those who are seeking genuine change.

“To adapt Mahatma Gandhi’s timeless quote, Nigerians must be the change they wish to see in their country, and the year 2014 must be our year of change’’

However, the Presidency described the New Year message of the APC as a ranting of a dying political party.

Special Adviser to the President on Political Matters, Ahmed Gulak, said Nigerians should not take the party seriously because it had no democrats in its fold.

He said the APC leaders would not recognise the fact that the PDP was still the best until the opposition party tests its popularity among Nigerians at the poll.

“That statement is a ranting of a dying political party. They should not be taken seriously. APC is a party of undemocratic elements. Let them test their popularity at the poll and see that the PDP is the best.

“Who are the democrats among them? Is it Tinubu who replaced Senator Olorunmbe Mamora in the Senate with his wife? Is it Tinubu who replaced his late mother with his daughter as the Iyaloja of Lagos despite that she is not a market woman? Is it Nyako who just joined them?”

Also, the PDP National Publicity Secretary, Olisah Metuh, said that the ruling party was not surprised by the APC’s assessment of the government.

“I don’t expect the APC to say that the PDP has done well. I don’t expect them to say there is agricultural revolution going on. I don’t expect them to commend the President for establishing universities of technology,” he said.

Metuh reminded the opposition party that change of government could only come through the ballot box in 2015.

But the APC insisted that Nigerians should go into the New Year with an unyielding commitment to be part of efforts to set the country on the path of growth and development.

It said, ‘‘While wishing all Nigerians a great 2014, we hereby solicit their unalloyed support for our efforts to reshape the country’s political landscape, shake off the heavy yoke imposed on them by their selfish, self-serving and clueless leaders and make the country a source of pride not only to its citizens but to all black people in the world.”

The party said that elections in the country should be free, fair and credible.

It stated, ‘’As we wrote in the preamble to our manifesto, ‘democracy, to be stable and meaningful, must be anchored on the principle that government derives its powers from the consent of the governed….This means that governments are instituted on the basis of free, fair and credible elections, and are maintained through responsiveness to public opinion.

‘‘In addition, the exercise of political authority is rooted in the rule of law. The APC believes in the doctrine of social contract between the leaders and the led; which means that the public office holder is a trustee of the people and that power must be used in the interest of the people rather than in the interest of the public office holder.”

The opposition party said the year 2013 was among the worst for the citizenry.  ‘’They say President Jonathan’s achievement in 2013 is unprecedented, yet Nigerians celebrated the Christmas and New Year holidays in unprecedented pitch darkness and an unprecedented number of our youths are unemployed.

“They say they are winning the war against corruption, yet key government officials, including the so-called Coordinating Minister of the Economy, do not even know how much Nigeria earns from crude oil and gas sales, and what happened to N12bn earned from domestic crude lifting. They are so eager to cling to any straw of ‘achievement’ that they are celebrating the revival of the locomotive engine in the 21st century.”

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