George Onyejiuwa, Owerri
Former Vice President and presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has described the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) as the party that has destroyed the country’s economy, making Nigeria the world capital of poverty.
This was just as the PDP National Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus, said Nigerians do not need a political party whose only stock in trade is lies and propaganda .
Atiku, who stated this yesterday at the PDP South Sast campaign rally in Owerri, capital of Imo State, where he formally presented the party’s flags to its governorship candidates in the region, claimed that the APC has ruined the nation’s flourishing economy which was growing at six percent per annum within just three and half years.
“Today, you are all living witnesses to the misery and hardship caused by this APC government, which has destroyed our economy and bastardised everything in the country.
“Just within three and half years, our economy, which was the biggest in Africa and third fastest growing economy in the world, with six per cent per annum, is today growing at less than two per cent per annum.
“The APC has made the country the world’s capital of poverty.
“There is much hunger, starvation, unemployment, agony and insecurity in the land because the APC-led Federal Government has no plan.”
He explained that the rally was held in Owerri because of the desire of the PDP to regain the state and to remedy the ills perpetrated by the APC in the state.
“I urge you all to come out on the 16th of next month and vote for me and protect your votes.
“You should also vote for all PDP candidates in the forthcoming elections and we will make sure that the APC, which is notorious for rigging, does not have its way this time. They are not campaigning because they are planning to rig but it would be easy for them this time.”
He assured all unemployed Nigerians of gainful employment and maximum security.
On his part, Secondus, said that the PDP has uncovered a plot by the APC to rig the election but vowed that the PDP would do everything humanly possible to resist them.
He advised the electorate to reject the APC and all that it stands for at the polls and to vote massively for the PDP.
“Nigerians should vote out this government.
“We have uncovered their plans to rig the election, but, we must warn the Independent National Electoral Commission and the security agencies that, if they collude with the APC, then, they must be prepared for crisis and the only way to avoid creating crisis is to conduct free and fair elections.”
Also, the party’s vice presidential candidate, Peter Obi, Senate President, and Director General of the Atiku Abubakar President Campaign Organisation, Dr. Bukola Saraki, his deputy, Ike Ekweremadu and other party chieftains who attended the rally dismissed the APC as “a party with empty promises for the masses” and called for total rejection Iof the party at the polls.