2023: Nigerians Won’t Replace Us With ‘Brassiere Buying’ Party, APC Attacks PDP

The ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, on Thursday took a swipe at the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, saying that Nigerian electorate cannot elect it in place of the ruling party.

This was in response to the remarks by the PDP National Chairman, Iyorchia Ayu, who had last week said APC had created an opportunity for terrorists and bandits to get a separate sovereignty in Nigeria during the inauguration of the latter’s National Working Committee.

The PDP chairman predicted the defeat of the APC saying the party will soon be swept off from power.

But speaking at a meeting with some state Caretaker Chairmen of the party in Abuja, the National Secretary of APC’s Caretaker Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee CECPC, Sen. John James Akpanudoedehe said, “I learnt that the new PDP chairman made a prophecy that we will scatter before April.

“I replied by saying that the Bible says take counsel together, it shall come to nothing. Speak the word, it will not stand, rather we will be stronger and stronger. Let me send a message to PDP, if we are talking about replacing APC, it can never be you because Nigerians are too intelligent.

“Nigerians will still choose APC. Talk is cheap, even when you sponsor crisis throughout Nigeria, we won all our bye-elections. We inherited insurgency and we have dealt with it. As we speak, not one inch of Nigeria’s territory has been taken over by any group. That is why they have turned themselves to criminals. When PDP were in government, they took over everywhere but today, it is different.

“Maybe because the President is not the talking type. I am challenging anyone to show me any social intervention programme better than this government. People are collecting alerts for COVID-19 palliative. Youths, women, civil servants are collecting it.

“If you have a minister who served under that government and the Minister bought a brassier worth $1 million, we cannot replace APC with brassier government. We just got another information that another account has been discovered”, he said.
Akpanudoedehe’s ‘brassiere’ analogy was a reference to a viral news report which said the federal government had uncovered diamond-encrusted undergarments belonging to a former minister in the PDP administration who is currently under investigation.
According to the report, the former Petroleum Minister, Diezani Madueke’s property located in Banana Island Foreshore Estate, Ikoyi, Lagos, which include 18 flats and six penthouses located at Building 3, Block B, Bella Vista, Plot 1, Zone N, Federal Government Layout, are up for auction.

Other recovered items listed are 125 pieces of wedding gowns, 13 pieces of small gowns, 41 pieces of waist trainers, 73 pieces of hard flower, 11 pieces of suit, 11 pieces of invisible bra, 73 pieces of veils, 30 pieces of braziers, two pieces of standing fan, 17 pieces of magic skits, six packets of blankets, one table blanket and 64 pairs of shoes.

But the Economic and Financial Crime Commission, the EFCC, through its Chairman, Mr Abdulrasheed Bawa, denied such seizure ever existed.
Bawa had appeared on a live television show, the Arise news, to dispel the rumour that the former minister had stolen so much including the item listed to include gowns, bra and others.

Speaking separately at a lecture organised for the party’s Press Corps in Abuja, the Director General of the Voice of Nigeria VON, Mr Osita Okechukwu, said Ayu, was hallucinating when he declared that the PDP will take over from the APC.

According to him, “Ayu hallucinated” when he declared that “by March/April 2023, there will be no APC in Nigeria. APC is a contraption; a contraption to win power, but they have no programme or any ideological position on what to do with power.”

“We are used to such hallucinations from the PDP, a party which regrettably squandered the messianic vision of its founding father, the former Vice President, His Excellency, Dr Alex Ekwueme of blessed memory, frustrated foreign investors and the high exit- expectations of Nigerians from gruesome military dictatorship”, he stated.

Okechukwu added that one important item which might make or mar the APC is the issue of internal democracy.

He said; “The incoming NWC must as a matter of urgent national importance whether direct or indirect or consensus make sure that the best candidates prevail. This is more so when events have proven that imposition of candidates engender negative outcome and recession of democracy. The case of the recent Anambra State gubernatorial primary is a case study”.
Sen. Akume on his part described Dr Ayu as a paperweight, saying he has no electoral value as he cannot win a ward councillorship election in his native Benue state.
“The keynote speaker said Ayu is hallucinating. I think it is even more than that. It is not just hallucinations but delusion of grandeur. He knows that he cannot win a ward councillorship election in his local government in Benue state”, said Akume.