ABUJA, Federal Republic of Nigeria. Following his blistering attack of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) over the emergence of Senator Ike Ekweremadu as deputy Senate president, despite being a member of the minority party, former Kano State governor, Rabiu Kwankwaso, has attracted the wrath of the PDP, which has warned him to mind his utterances.
Kwankwaso, who has been elected a senator, had been quoted in the media as declaring the PDP dead, while arguing that the election of Ekweremadu was meant to create problem for the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration.
But in a statement issued by the national publicity secretary of the PDP, Chief Olisa Metuh, in Abuja, on Tuesday, the former ruling party admonished him against incendiary utterances capable of destabilising the National Assembly and rubbishing the prevailing political tranquility in the country.
It said the party was particularly shocked by the hate statement from Kwankwaso, wherein he used offensive language on the PDP and its members in the National Assembly.
The opposition party said it was “taken aback by the venom and bitterness in the statement, especially coming from a former governor, an elected senator, a highly respected former member of the PDP, who also benefitted hugely from the party as minister and two-time state governor.”
The PDP said it would have wished not to join issues with politicians who grew their political profile in the party, no matter where they are at the moment, but regretted that Kwankwaso went too far in declaring the party dead, just because he was aggrieved that the Senate presidency did not go his way.
The PDP observed that it was “indecorous, mischievous and misleading for anybody to declare a party with an enviable history as the PDP, with 14 state governors, 47 senators and hundreds of members in the House of Representatives and state houses of Assembly dead.”
Similarly, it dismissed as frivolous, Kwakwaso’s “unfounded and unsubstantiated claim” that PDP’s agenda was to irritate Buhari and put hurdle before him.
PDP recalled that it had repeatedly assured that it would help the government by providing robust and constructive opposition that would help his government, unlike APC’s hate opposition, adding that such baseless complains would not stop Nigerians from holding the APC-led Federal Government responsible on its campaign promises.
The party also described as laughable, Kwankwaso’s claims that under President Buhari, everything was working well in the country and wondered why he failed to give the credit for the stability in the nation to whom it was due.
Credit: Tribune (Nigeria)
