APC Fires Back At Iyorchia Ayu, Says Buhari Is Fixing 16 Years Of PDP Misrule

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has hit back at the newly-inaugurated national working committee of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) after asking the Muhammadu Buhari-led government to start writing its handover note preparatory to its exit from office in 2023.

The PDP had sworn in Iyorchia Ayu as national chairman and 20 others as members of its new NWC at a ceremony held at the International Conference Centre in Abuja on Friday.

Ayu, while delivering his speech at the ICC, revealed plans by the new NWC to work toward PDP’s return to power in 2023, while advising the Buhari-led administration to “begin to prepare your handover notes” in advance.

“We will rebuild our collapsed economy. We will make Nigerians the focus of development. We will expand our international vision beyond Niger Republic.

“We will check the rampaging insecurity. We will restore Nigeria’s lost glory. And we will reclaim our dignity, destiny and pride as the Giant of Africa,” the opposition party’s national chairman had said.

But responding on Saturday, the APC said it had already seen “early signs” that the new PDP NWC is not different from the immediate-past leadership of the party.

The ruling party’s spokesperson, Senator John Akpanudoedehe, said Buhari has repeatedly said he would quietly leave power after the expiration of his tenure, contrary to Ayu’s suggestion that the president may stay beyond his constitutional two terms in office.

“The sit-tight syndrome headlined by the PDP’s ill-fated third-term agenda has been discarded as an undemocratic template. President Muhammadu Buhari has assured Nigerians and the international community of free and fair elections in 2023, even as he pledged peaceful transfer of power. That is the stuff of true progressives and statesmanship,” said Akpanudoedehe.

He added that, “The priority of this administration has been clearing the national rot left behind by the PDP’s shambolic handling of insecurity in its early days, its financial heist under the guise of procuring military weapons, fuel subsidy rackets, diverted loans, voodoo economics, abuse of public institutions and electoral fraud.”