The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has accused the PDP of suffering from deep paranoia over the ongoing merger
talks involving key opposition parties, including the CPC, as well as other progressive forces in the country.
In a statement issued in Lagos on Friday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said there is no
better indication that the PDP is deeply worried by the talks than the resort to downright lies and abuse of the opposition parties
by the PDP spokesman, Olisa Metuh, in order to discredit the talks.
It said that in Mr. Metuh’s latest mudslinging, blackmail and name-calling against the opposition, he described the ACN as a
”one-man party” and the CPC as a ”believing in violence”.
”The truth of the matter is that PDP is terrified of the outcome of the merger talks. From the commencement of these talks, PDP has
been having nightmares. However the truth of the matter is that these talks have the blessing of a significant chunk of the leadership of
the PDP who, for the time being, cannot come out publicly.
”Well, Mr. Metuh, here is a message you may want to convey to your paymasters: No amount of name calling, blackmail or character
assassination can stop an idea whose time has come.
”And if the PDP is so sure that the talks will fail, why is it even bothering to make any comments at all? We are comforted by the wise
saying that anywhere you see the sign that reads “No Thoroughfare”, then it means there is a road there. PDP’s days as a political party
are numbered with the assured success of these talks,” ACN said.
The party said the tagging of the ACN as a one-man party by the PDP has become a meaningless cliche, adding: ”All we have to say is
that those who have the good fortune of belonging to the ACN know that there is no political party with a more robust democratic practice
than the ACN.
”As a matter of fact, the usual remarks of former PDP members who joined our party is that they never believed any political party can be
as democratic and inclusive in arriving at decisions affecting the party and its members as they have found in ACN.
”Perhaps Metuh had not joined the PDP when Gov. Rotimi Amechi of Rivers State, who won the PDP primary elections for the Governorship
of Rivers State, had his ticket forcibly taken away from him and it took the Supreme Court of Nigeria – in a landmark decision – to restore his
ticket to him and pronounce him Governor, even though his name was not on the ballot.
”Or may we ask where was Metuh when the PDP, after the death of late President Umaru Yar’Adua, decided to jettison its zoning agreement
on the platform of shameless expediency to pave the way for President Goodluck Jonathan,” ACN queried.
The party said while the CPC is quite capable of defending itself against the irresponsible allegation that it believes in violence, the trophy for
violence and gangsterism goes to the PDP.
”Again, we ask: Where was Metuh when some gangsters with the full backing of the highest echelon of the PDP kidnapped a serving governor,
or when the leader of the same gangsters openly confessed to the then President that he singlehandedly rigged election in favour of the PDP
in the 2003 Anambra Governorship poll?
”Perhaps, Mr. Metuh should take time to study the antecedents of his party before washing its dirty linens in public in the name of criticizing other
political parties. Far from the picture painted of the PDP by Mr. Metuh in his interview, his party is nothing but a conglomeration of strange bedfellows
whose only bond is the sharing of the largesse they have made of the nation’s commonwealth in the past 13 years,” ACN said.
