ACN is “a brood of dictators”, says PDP

BY HENRY UMORU, OLASUNKANMI AKONI & DAUD OLATUNJI
ABUJA — THE national leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, yesterday asked the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, to stop fooling Nigerians about its democratic posture.
According to PDP,  ACN  is “a brood of dictators whose deceit and  pretense to democracy  are consistently hobbled by its habitual disregard for the rudiments of democratic process.”

From Left: Gov. Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom; PDP National Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, and PDP National Secretary, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, at a PDP National Working Committee/Induction Policy Retreat in Uyo on Monday (18/6/12).

The PDP in a statement, yesterday, by its National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, also asked the ACN to tell Nigerians how the former President of Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, Mr Rotimi Akeredolu, emerged as the governorship candidate of ACN for the Ondo election.
This came barely 24 hours after the PDP  tonguelashed  ACN of non adherence to due process in the emergence of Akeredolu.
Metuh while reacting to the denial by the National Publicity Secretary of the ACN, Mr Lai Mohammed, that his party was yet to choose its gubernatorial candidate for the October 20 election in Ondo State,  urged the “ACN to emerge from its cocoon of deceit to own up to its artful preference for the undemocratic style.
He said: “Who is fooling who? The ACN apparatchiks under its Pontifex Maximus met in Lagos in clear aberration of all known tenets of democracy and handpicked Mr. Rotimi Akeredolu, the former President of the Nigerian Bar Association, as its candidate. The facts are there.”
According to the PDP spokesperson, “if Akeredolu has not been handpicked in the ACN’s usual closed door, why are other aspirants protesting? Why are some of the 30 aspirants already going public with their disgust and frustration with the on-going shenanigans in the ACN?”
Confusion in Ogun over LG polls
In Abeokuta,Ogun State capital, as the deadline for the substitution of chairmanship candidates by political parties given by  Ogun State Independent Electoral Commission, OGSIEC, formally closed on Saturday night ahead of the July 14 local government elections, the electoral body and even the leading contending parties are in state of confusion over fielding of candidates for the crucial election.
As at 4.00pm yesterday, the ruling Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, and leading opposition party, PDP, are having before the commission, two separate lists from factions presenting their chairmanship and councillorship candidates.
Trouble began when the secretary of ACN, Alhaji Safi Awofeso sent another list of candidates, asking OGSIEC to disregard the earlier one sent to it.
Aggrieved aspirants threaten to defect
The development has further compounded  the crisis in  ACN, as some aggrieved aspirants have threatened to defect to other political parties if the alleged imposition of candidates is not revisited before the end of the replacement and substitution of candidates which ended yesterday as stipulated by the state electoral body.
A member of the commission and chairman of the screening committee, Mutiu Agboke, yesterday, denied receiving two lists fron ACN.
Aspirants accuse Amosun of imposition
Meantime, nine chairmanship aspirants of the ACN in Remo North Local Government Area of Ogun State have rejected the nomination of Chief Olufemi Shoyemi as the party’s flag bearer in the forthcoming council poll in the state.
The aspirants, who registered their rejection in a communiqué at the end of a meeting, yesterday, accused Gov. Amosun of imposing Shoyemi on the people.
Among the signatories are: Adebari Ajayi, Odofin Ajayi, Pelumi Olusola, Omotayo Ayodele, Comrade Adesegun Bamodu, Adekoya Sofodu, Olukayode Azeez Soetan, Enitan Olatunji Sofolabo and Samuel Segun Idowu.
“At a meeting held at Ilara Remo, Ogun State, we collectively and equivocally reject the imposition of Chief Olufemi Shoyemi as the party’s flagbearer in the forth coming LG elections in Ogun State.” the aggrieved aspirants stated.
They contended that Shoyemi did not have the political relevance in his war d 9 in Ode Remo and the entire Remo North LGA hence he shall be unable to deliver the LGA to the party during the forthcoming election.
According to them, “we the aspirants and our numerous party supporters of LGA hereby dissociate ourselves from the imposition by Governor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State.”

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