The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has accused the All Progressive Congress (APC) of use its school feeding programme as a conduit for fraud and asked Nigerians to vote out the ruling party in the next general election and return Nigeria to her winning ways.
Addressing a large crowd of party members at its north-central zonal presidential campaign rally in Ilorin, Kwara state, PDP leaders one after the other raised allegations against the APC, including alleged secret buying of Permanent Voters Card (PVCs) as a means of rigging the 2019 polls.
They, however, warned that any plan to use security agencies or the electoral body, INEC, to perpetrate fraud during the elections would be stoutly resisted by the people.
Leading the charge was Director General of the PDP Campaign Council and Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki who said the APC led government has failed in three critical facets of governance it promised Nigerians to work on in 2015.
According to Saraki, “APC promised Nigeria a lot of things. They promised us security. Then we had security problem only in the North East but now it has extended to North Central and even the North West. APC has failed because security has worsened.
“People are dying of hunger because economy has gone terribly bad. They have also failed in fighting corruption. The hunger is serious in the country today. Nigeria is today world’s poverty capital. We need a president that will fix the economy, create jobs and unite Nigerians.
“This APC government must go because events of the past three years had shown that they don’t have solutions to all these problems. We must vote this government out and elect Atiku as our next president. My people of Kwara and North central, we must vote out Buhari. Atiku is solution to Nigeria’s problem.”
Echoing Saraki, PDP presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar lamented that Nigeria has gone worse under the APC, a development he argued has necessitated the need to replace the ruling party that can make things work in the nation again.
His words: “They promised us security, job, and to improve the economy but in each of these they failed. It is time for our people to return PDP to power because Nigeria was good when PDP was in power. Today in terms of economy, Nigeria is the poorest in the world. These are facts from international organisations. The security situation has become terribly bad.”
Atiku alleged that the APC has begun to buy permanent voters cards from people as a way of perpetrating electoral fraud but urged Nigerians to guide against the plan so as not to mortgage their future and that of their children.
In his own speech PDP National Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus noted that Nigerians have been suffering since APC took over power in 2015 and described the APC government as a having brought doom to Nigeria necessitating the need for the PDP to bring light to the nation.
He said: “Look at the genocide in Benue and Plateau states and no arrest was made. APC is a government of propaganda. They can’t fool Nigerians again. Atiku has experience in both private and public sectors that can be used positively to lead Nigeria and return it to the path of glory and buoyant economy.
“Atiku is a man no one can bribe. Buhari has brought doom to Nigeria and the only man that will bring peace to Nigeria is Atiku. Atiku will bring food, security to Nigeria. INEC will only cause crisis in Nigeria if they attempted to rig the 2019 election. The election must be transparent. Nigeria will not allow election rigging again. Nigerians must be the soldiers and policemen on duty in election day to protect their votes .
“We have the best candidate who will win. One of the APC strategies is to cause crisis and postpone election, so that they can rig as they did in Osun. We will not accept any election postponement.”
Earlier, former governor of Niger State, Alhaji Babangida Aliyu, had alleged that the school feeding programme is a fraud because it is purportedly feeding pupils who have no infrastructure to use in their schools
According to him, “the school feeding programme is a means of stealing money. You have schools that have no teachers, schools that have no furniture and you say you are feeding pupils, it is all fraud. They are doing that because they know that once you eat, you will need to go to toilet and after that need food again so there is an opportunity for them to steal by providing food”.
Chairman of the organising committee for the rally who doubles as Kwara state PDP secretary, Alhaji Rasaq Lawal thanked the people of the state for turning out in large number to honour Saraki and the PDP and asked the people of the state to repeat the fit during the 2019 elections by voting massively for all the PDP’s candidates across board.
PDP flags were presented to the gubernatorial candidate of the party in Kwara, Alhaji Razak Atunwa and his counterparts from the north central zone who were present at the rally.
