The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has dismissed assertion that opposition political parties have gone underground as they are offering the ruling party cogent and sound criticisms.
The PDP said unlike the All Progressives Congress (APC) that is smothering democracy, it remains the bastion of Nigeria’s democracy and would continue to encourage free speech.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, had claimed the opposition was missing in action, while the National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Mallam Lanre Issa Onilu, had Sunday alleged the “PDP is dead and Nigeria is becoming a one-party state”.
PDP national publicity secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, who swiftly reacted described both assertions as “totally unacceptable” and warned those who are advising the president on this issue to back off.
“They came out to claim that the major opposition party is dead. We want to state clearly that our party is the consensus political party of the majority of Nigerians and our party after a long journey of overhauling has become the center for seeking power and good governance in our nation, he said.
“The PDP does not contain certificate forgers, it is not party of people who are contrivers. Our political party is relating directly with Nigerians people and we are working assiduously to make sure that democratic tenets of our nation is not only entrenched but seen to be entrenched in our nation.
“As we do not have space to respond to the gimmicks of former democrats who went around the nation and brought in a despot into a democratic order, neither do we have space to engage in verbal discussion with characters, who are known to be pillaging and stealing directly from the patrimony of our nation.
Ologbondiyan added that “the PDP remains the bastion of democracy in our nation. PDP is in the Supreme Court to ensure that the mandate which was given to Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and has been stolen is restored to us.
“When the PDP took a decision to ensure that we create an alternative government, ours was to make suggestion on how good governance was to be entrenched on our country. PDP has been carrying out that responsibility. As far as APC needs to know, our nation has survived dictators.
“We have succeeded as a people to ensure that those who seek to rule us without our consent do not succeed and as such, it is strange and totally unacceptable that the APC and the Buhari presidency will within its whimsical thinking claim that Nigeria will become a one party state.
“This country is a resilient nation and no individual no matter how highly placed in the past has succeeded in reducing us to a nation of cowards. Even today it will be unacceptable to Nigerians to be so reduced. So PDP will continue to play its opposition role and we will play it successfully”.
