NEWS: APC responds to Atiku on N50m claims: “Your desperation is the root of PDP problems.”

The All Progressives Congress, APC, has attributed the “catastrophic disintegration” of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to the political desperation of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar

APC spokesperson Felix Morka stated that Atiku was responsible for the “festering rot” and dysfunction of opposition parties in Nigeria.

Morka was responding to Atiku’s claim that the President Bola Tinubu-led APC had paid opposition leaders N50 million each.

Speaking in Abuja, Atiku also alleged that Nigeria’s democracy was at risk due to the involvement of the judiciary in electoral matters.

In his response, Morka reminded Atiku that the PDP conducted its worst elections in Nigeria’s history during his tenure as Vice President.

In a statement he signed, Morka said:

“The former Vice President and presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 presidential election, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, like a badly broken record, has continued to point fingers at the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the festering rot in his party and the spectacular dysfunction of opposition parties generally.

“At the national conference on Strengthening Democracy in Nigeria held in Abuja on Monday, 27 January 2025, Atiku warned that the nation’s democracy was somewhat imperilled by judicial involvement in electoral matters. Also, without a shred of evidence, Atiku alleged that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was paying certain opposition leaders a whopping N50 million each to disorganise opposition parties in the country.

“It was during Atiku’s era as Vice President, particularly in 2003 and 2007, that the PDP conducted the worst elections in our political history. We cannot possibly forget how Atiku’s PDP heavy-handedly captured most South-West states and vowed to remain in power for 60 years. It was in those same years that Atiku’s former boss, then-President of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, infamously described elections as a ‘do or die affair’ in a desperate attempt to annex Lagos. If democracy was neither derailed nor endangered in those perilous days, is it now, when elections are far freer, fairer, and more credible, that Nigeria risks losing democracy?

“The judicial branch of government is a constitutional creation, like the executive and legislative branches, with constitutionally defined powers to adjudicate disputes among citizens and between citizens and the state. Atiku cannot wish away or seek to abolish the courts’ enshrined powers to intervene in civil disputes, including electoral disputes, when their authority is validly invoked by a litigant.

“Atiku’s allegation that the APC-led administration is paying out N50 million to some opposition figures is simply bogus and laughable. Atiku knows that his political desperation is responsible for the PDP’s catastrophic disintegration.

“Peddling rumours and unsubstantiated allegations should be beneath anyone of the standing of an elder statesman, a former Vice President, and a serial contestant for the exalted office of President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”