Bye- election: APC testing ground for 2027 -PDP; Says Ibadan set to host national convention 

Bye- election: APC testing ground for 2027 -PDP

* Says Ibadan set to host national convention

By Ndukaku Ihe

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has accused the All Progressives Congress (APC) using the security agencies to clampdown on its members in different areas during last weekend bye-elections to fill 16 vacant state and National Assembly seats in 13 states across the country.

The PDP National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, while speaking at an interactive session, with journalists, yesterday, in Abuja, said what the APC did last week was to test for the 2027 polls.

However, Ologunagba said the ruling party will be disappointed as Nigerians would step up to them in the next general elections.

The opposition spokesman said plans to hold the PDP national convention in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, from November 15-16, has reached advance stage.

He dismissed  a media report  that there are plans by some persons in the party to stage a parallel convention in Abuja, noting that the decision to hold the convention in Ibadan was reached at a meeting of the National Executive Committee (NEC), with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in attendance.

According to him, “that is indeed a speculation. How do you have a national convention? There is a process and we are  a party of process indeed. “And what we do is that we follow the constitution of our party. Interestingly, the process has started, we have been in sync with our regulator, INEC. INEC has been attending all the meetings.

“It is in the realm of conjecture probably. I think it would be in the realm of hallucination. And this train has moved on. It has gone past the bus stop. We are actually in Ibadan, as I speak.”

Ologunagba noted that the APC is always panicky whenever it perceives that PDP leaders are working together and would want to cause a dis-affection, so that the opposition party will not talk about the failings of the Federal Government.

The PDP spokesman, who said the opposition party is aware of the arrogance of the APC over last weekend’s bye-elections, accused the ruling party of allegedly weaponizing the poverty in the country.

“We don’t call that an election. And we’ve heard about the arrogance of the APC. What they have done with those elections to test for 2007. But I have a bad news for APC.

“What happened in those bye-election, that they call election, it will not happen in 2007. Why? The reason is that Nigerian people are wiser. They are hurting. What will be on the ballot in 2007 will be the hunger,  the uncertainty, will be the insecurity that no money can purchase.

“Only last week, in my little village, the chairman of my party was kidnapped. Now it is so sad that when people get kidnapped in this country, you don’t even talk to police. They say, go and look for the money. It sounds like a new normal.

“That is what will be on the ballot. Nigerian people will defeat them because they brought hunger to this country. For more than 10 years now, APC had been a point of pain to Nigeria”, he stated.