The All Progressive Congress, APC, in Benue State is on the verge of death, according to the Peoples Democratic Party of the state, which claims it had nothing to do with either event.
The state chapter of the PDP responded to the APC’s accusations that the Benue PDP was funding the destruction of their campaign materials and Professor Terhemba Shija’s lawsuits for the governorship.
In the statement signed by PDP State Publicity Secretary and 2023 Campaign Spokesman, Bemgba Iortyom, said: “PDP in Benue, therefore, has no time for frivolities as it has its eyes firmly focused on the goals of resounding victory at the February 25th and March 11th, 2023 general elections.”
The statement reads below.
“Since yesterday when the Benue State Chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) purported to embark on a re-run of their governorship primary election, the party has taken to the media to levy all manner of accusations against the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as being behind a concoction of predicaments afflicting them in the state.
“APC’s accusations against PDP in this instance range from destruction of their campaign materials to sponsorship of Professor Terhemba Shija’s legal battles against what he is challenging as a fraudulent gubernatorial primary election in 2022, as well as a purported hiring of thugs to disrupt the re-run of the primaries scheduled to have commenced yesterday.
“In responding to those accusations of the APC our great party yields to the distraction antics which they represent, yet we do so for the benefit of those who may be unaware of the underlying motive of the opposition party.
Read Also: Wife of Governor Ortom: Available and accessible
“Firstly, all publicity materials of the APC worth taking seriously are still intact at their various locations, and this is physically evident to anyone who may wish to confirm.
“The opposition party in its allegations posted photographs of some placards inside a vehicle as evidence of the purported materials destroyed, leaving many to ask why PDP will leave the major campaign materials such as billboards and concern itself with a mere handful of placards.
“Secondly, it amounts to crass illogicality whenever APC bandies the allegation that it is PDP sponsoring aggrieved aspirants on its platform who are in court challenging the outcome of the party’s gubernatorial primary in 2022, since PDP itself went to court to challenge same process.
“Question arising here is, who then is sponsoring PDP, if it should follow that anyone in court challenging the Benue APC guber primary in 2022 must have been sponsored by someone?
“But more profoundly, should the issues for determination in the court processes challenging the said guber primary be who is sponsoring the litigants or the cited breaches of extant electoral laws which are the grounds canvassed by the litigants?
“APC’s media managers surely can’t embrace ignorance to the extent they do not understand that the defences available to their party in the court of law aren’t in a real sense different from those which rationally hold in the court of public opinion, since both realms are bound by the common-sense ingrained in natural justice.
“Thirdly, APC in Benue either flatters itself excessively or is being criminally mischievous by making it out that PDP concerns itself with what has become the most disgraceful showing in political party leadership incompetence and mismanagement.
“How should PDP bother with the matter of APC’s re-run in Benue which is sub-judice and at the behest of the Supreme Court to decide upon, regardless of what the opposition chooses to do while the matter pends at the Apex court?
“For emphasis, PDP under the leadership of Governor Samuel Ortom only the other week rounded up its first leg of campaign tour of the 23 local government areas of Benue, following which the First Lady of the state, Her Excellency, Dr. Mrs. Eunice Ortom, is currently leading women and youths on another round of the local government areas.
“Running simultaneously are the Gubernatorial, Senatorial, House of Representatives and State Assembly campaigns of our great party being undertaken by our candidates and their campaign teams right down to the 276 council wards and 5,102 polling units in the state.
“PDP in Benue, therefore, has no time for frivolities as it has its eyes firmly focused on the goals of resounding victory at the February 25th and March 11th, 2023 general elections.
“APC’s prevailing doom and the attendant impending death of the party are clearly the result of poor administration of its internal processes, and this fact they should own up to and work to address, rather than indulging in false accusations against PDP which in the end will only amount to a waste of their time.”
