APC accuses PDP of bribing lawmakers with millions of dollars to decamp

APC says PDP will be voted out in 2015

Nigeria’s main opposition party has accused the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, of using public funds to lure back some of the federal lawmakers who defected from the ruling party to the opposition.

The The All Progressives Congress, APC, condemned the alleged action by the ruling party, terming it “political horse trading carried too far.”

In a statement issued in Lagos on Tuesday by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed, the party said the PDP, in a show of desperation, rolled out an enticement package that promised $2 million (N328 million) to each Senator who returns to the PDP; $1 million (N164 million) to a member of the House of Representatives, and $10 million (N1.64 billion) to a “leader” who abandons the APC for PDP. It claimed that the price tag for the federal legislators from Rivers State was even higher – $5 million (N821 million) each.

The APC, however, said no amount of inducement would stop the change on the horizon ‘as the long-suffering people of Nigeria were ready and eager to vote out the PDP next year.’

Five PDP to APC and back to PDP

Five members of the House of Representatives on Tuesday announced their defection from the APC to the PDP, while one member also decamped from the PDP to the APC. The five members: Ladan Bichi (Kano), Abdulsalam Adamu (Kano), Sani Galadima (Zamfara), Ibrahim Gusau (Zamfara) and Umar Bature (Sokoto) said they were decamping from the APC to PDP; while Isa Ashiru, who represents Kaduna State, decamped from the PDP to APC.

The APC said the five House of Representatives members who took the PDP’s bait and returned to the latter were ‘dirty traitors.’ It said when the lawmakers initially defected to the APC, they were neither forced to do so nor given any incentive beyond the rare opportunity offered them to be a part of the looming change.

The opposition party expressed the hope that the defectors would declare the money they allegedly collected from the PDP to those who voted them into office. The party said it also hoped the lawmakers would pretend to be democratic by sharing the money with their constituents.

”Nigerians can now see why their country has gone broke; why the allocation to states from the Federation Account has continued to dwindle, and why infrastructures have either remained decrepit or non-existent. It is not difficult to imagine the number of boreholes that 10 million can sink, or how far such a huge amount will go in building cottage hospitals and health clinics.

”Things are bound to get worse in the days ahead because the desperate PDP will, more and more, use public funds to try to change the course of history. We therefore urge Nigerians to remain resolute in the face of what will be a wave of inducements never before seen in these climes, because there is no going back on the plan to vote out the PDP next year and save Nigeria from a rapacious and inept leadership,” the APC said.

When contacted on the allegations, the PDP spokesperson, Olisa Metuh, said the party would issue a response on Wednesday morning.

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