APC blackmailing our governors to join them, PDP claims

Kola Ologbondiyan, spokesperson of the Peoples Democratic Party, says governors under the PDP platform are being blackmailed into joining the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

Speaking on Thursday when he featured on Politics Today, a Channels Television programme, Ologbondiyan said the APC is trying to showcase to Nigerians that members of the opposition party are joining them, instead of focusing on good governance.

The PDP has faced a series of high-profile defections over the past months, including that of David Umahi, governor of Ebonyi state, who decamped to the APC in November 2020.

The PDP spokesperson, however, maintained that his party will put its house in order to ensure that more members do not defect.

“Let me make it abundantly clear to you. APC has failed in government and they have nothing to tell Nigerians. The only thing they are planning to showcase to Nigerians is that if you claim we are not delivering, how come people are joining our party,” he said

“As a result of that, the APC is blackmailing our governors. They are blackmailing Nigerians, irrespective of status, to come and join their party.

“As far as the PDP is concerned, I can assure you and truly equally assure Nigerians that we will do everything permissible within the electoral process and the law of our nation to keep our house in order, to ensure none of our governors will be taken again.”

Responding to a question on if there are concerns about any PDP governor defecting, Ologbondiyan said the APC is “capitalising on the gullibility of Nigerians” to peddle rumours of governors joining the ruling party.

He claimed that while his party is interested in governance, the APC is only interested in the “political annihilation” of PDP members.

“One thing that the APC is capitalising on — I’m sorry to say this — is the gullibility of Nigerians, and I say so clearly because in the last six months or over, we have been hearing rumours of ’10 governors will leave the PDP and we are going to reduce the PDP with no governors at all’,” he said.

“You will know that it is only the PDP governors that are commissioning projects. You are aware that even today, no fewer than three to four projects have been commissioned in Benue state. The party that claimed to be in government, what do you see?

“On a daily basis, they are not doing things that will affect the lives of Nigerians. Rather, they are engaging in political annihilation of the opposition party. They are not interested in government, having failed woefully in every ramification of government.”