PDP

On Wednesday, the Peoples Democratic Party chastised the federal government, which is currently being run by the All Progressives Congress, over the recent increase in the pump price of Premium Motor Spirit, popularly known as fuel, from N534 to N617 per litre.

Debo Ologunagba, the national publicity secretary of the main opposition party, referred to the increased pricing as provocative and outrageous in a statement, saying that the recent increase made the already dire economic condition under the APC’s rule even worse.

The statement partly read, “Our party insists that the N617 per litre of fuel is excessive, unacceptable and cannot be justified under any guise. This is especially given the economic potential and prospects within our country.

“It is appalling that instead of seeking ways to stabilise and grow the economy, the APC administration has abandoned the welfare of Nigerians which is the primary purpose of government under Section 14 (2)(b) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) and left the citizens to the vagaries of market forces and exploitative cabal; a disposition that is characteristic of a government that is not accountable to the people.

“The PDP is alarmed that with its ill-thought out, badly planned and hurriedly-executed policies, the APC is running Nigeria’s economy aground with the value of naira rapidly plummeting, businesses and production shutting down; citizens losing their means of livelihood, commercial and social activities crippled, with millions of families no longer able to afford their daily needs as the costs of food, medication and other essential goods and services continue to skyrocket.”

The statement claims that APC’s insensitivity, roiling corruption, scandalous ignorance, and inability to successfully stabilize and manage the country’s economy are to blame for the grave scenario that exists today.

“Indeed, this is not the nation that Nigerians yearned for after the abysmal, harrowing and inhuman eight years of the Buhari-led APC administration as the situation has currently gone from a frightening bad to a terrifying worse with no hope in sight,” the statement said.

Faulting the governing party’s justification of the recent hike in PMS price, the PDP stressed that the “lame argument of market forces and comparison of the price of fuel in Nigeria with those of other countries which have functional infrastructure, variety of affordable alternative transportation system and sources of energy; strong currency and where citizens earn far higher than what obtains in Nigeria,” makes the new price regime indefensible.

According to the party, “Even with the removal of subsidy on petroleum products, with a deft, transparent and innovative management of resources, economic potentials, national comparative advantage and expanded value chain in refining capacity, fuel should not sell for more than N150 per litre in Nigeria.”

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), according to the All Progressives Congress (APC), is attempting to hide its involvement in the March 18 Delta governorship election rigging.

This was said in a statement made on Sunday in Asaba by Dr. Timi Tonye, the Deputy Director of Media and Publicity for the Delta APC campaign organization.

According to Tonye, the PDP presidential campaign council spokesperson and the state’s commissioner for information, Mr. Charles Aniagwu, had expressed concern that the rigging might be discovered quickly.

“Aniagwu said that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) issued stringent guidelines to state Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) on the issuance of Certified True Copies (CTCs) of electoral documents for litigation by parties and candidates.

“He said that INEC was specific in directing its RECs to compare the result in form EC8A with what is recorded on the IReV portal before issuing CTCs.

“Aniagwu is demanding from INEC, a blatant breach of the provisions of the Electoral Law which spells out clearly the process of collating and announcing the results of the governorship election.

“It is most ridiculous for anyone to request INEC not to implement the Electoral Law and INEC’s own rules in regard to issuing of the Certified True Copies of results of the governorship election in Delta,” he said.

He stressed, “It is even more absurd to impugn ‘circumvention of justice’ in the statement the PDP issued when in truth they are the people that are attempting to pervert justice by their now notorious BVAS by-pass in the just concluded elections.

“The impudence and mendacity of that demand is offensive and deeply insulting to the sensibilities of the Delta electorate, who have been cheated out of the true results of the election they keenly participated in.

“The PDP, their sympathizers and co-travellers are aware of the egregious falsifications of the results of the Delta governorship election and the utter falsehood in the announced results, wants the bogus and falsified results published by the collation officers in the state’s INEC office to stand and not controverted by the correct counts of accreditations recorded by IReV.

“The PDP does not want the upload of results from across the state into the national database BVAS to be used to verify the results published by the Delta collation officers.

”This is the reason PDP wants the Certified True Copy of the election result issued in Asaba.

“The fear of verification of the announced results has petrified the PDP. The sheer volume of the diabolism, rigging and other actions to steal an election PDP clearly lost must be resisted by every patriotic citizen of Delta.

“As we proceed to seek justice in the matter of the 2023 governorship election, we ask the citizens of the state to be vigilant, steadfast and rally around the APC to safeguard democracy in Delta and the integrity of the 2023 governorship election.

”We are determined to return the stolen mandate to the true winner of the 2023 governorship election”.