The All Progressives Congress has described the recent actions of the Niger State Governor, Dr. Muazu Babangida Aliyu, on his party, the Peoples Democratic Party, presenting credible candidates for the 2015 general election and 500,000 signature for him to contest the Senate seat as laughable.
The opposition, in a statement signed by its spokesman, Comrade Jonathan Vatsa, and made available to our Correspondent on Sunday, said it found it difficult to believe that a man who said permanent secretaries and commissioners must have Masters and Doctorate degrees decided to deceive the people of the state with transparent processes ahead of 2015 by parading those with questionable academic background.
The Niger State Government, in a reaction to the opposition’s statement, described the allegation of imposition of candidates as a deceitful ploy of the APC in Niger State to masquerade the impending election disaster that awaits it in the 2015 poll.
The Chief Press Secretary to the Niger State Governor, Israel Ebije, in a statement said the state government was not surprised at the drivel of the opposition, adding that to save face, the APC has to blackmail to justify their failure to properly mobilise themselves and electorates for the forthcoming election.
Vatsa said the APC observed that the do or die approach and the vote buying strategy adopted in the last Niger East bye-election has made the governor to mistake the fraud for credible process.
He said: “It has made him and his party to think that they are popular and they can impose anybody on the state.
“We are aware of his strategy to impose his candidate on the state through dubious processes, with the goal of installing a governor that will not be able to probe the financial recklessness and all sort of administrative disorder that has taken place in the last seven and half years in Niger State.”
The spokesman to Governor Aliyu however said the issue of candidates imposition only exists in the disgruntled imagination of the opposition.
Ebije added that only a few weeks ago, Aliyu presented the deputy governor, a former senator and his former Chief of Staff as persons who have so far indicated interest to run on the platform of the PDP.
Ebije therefore insisted the state governor has no anointed candidate.
He then advised the opposition to engage itself in better errands, insisting that it is not in their place to speak for the PDP or attach a candidate to the governor.
Furthermore, Vatsa said that the APC remains very amused by the claim of one Talba Success Movement that it has collected 500,000 signatures for the governor to contest for Niger East Senatorial District seat in 2015.
The party said: “The truth is coming out, the APC is proven right that Dr. Shem Zagbayi is a stooge of the Governor who will be quitting in 2015.
“The claim has also shown us that the Governor through his cronies are not truthful to Nigerlites because it is difficult to have 500,000 signature in a senatorial zone where less than 200,000 people actually came out to be accredited to vote in the last bye-election.
“The struggle ahead of us to checkmate those who don’t mean well for Niger state and Nigerlites starts now, we urge all the people of Niger state not to allow themselves to be deceived by the PDP and the Governor’s antics of buying votes, we urge you not to sacrifice your tomorrow and that of children unborn for the paltry given during elections, Nigerlites shine your eyes.”
Ebije further advised that the APC should look for better ways to recover its lost political goodwill and not through expired lies the people are so familiar with and indeed tired of.
“It is regrettable the Niger state APC has allowed itself to derail from topical issues into petty noise making. Put your house in order. The errand of blackmail will not take you anywhere but further down the slop of political oblivion where you are attitudinally destined for,” Ebije asserted.
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