APC Governors Are Forcing Civil Servants To Register For Party..PDP

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, yesterday accused governors of the All Progressives Congress, APC, controlled states of coercing civil servants to partake in the ongoing party registration exercise.

The National Auditor of the PDP, Alhaji Adewole Adeyanju, in a statement in Abuja alleged that the plot informed the reason why the exercise earlier slated to end yesterday, was extended by two working days to enable civil servants in their respective states get registered. But the APC in a swift reaction said the PDP’s sponsored sabotage of its ongoing membership registration in several states of the federation as well as its rush to the media to condemn the process have shown the ruling party as a cog in the wheel of democracy.

PDP said: “This madness on the parts of the APC governors of forcing the innocent civil servants to register for their party must stop, it is real especially in the South- West where I come from. I have been receiving series of reports on this since the beginning of the exercise.

“The innocent civil servants will have no option than to succumb to the directive for jobs security since they have no jobs elsewhere. “APC is desperate, they have been telling the civil servant to go and register with APC, and that without the party’s membership card, there will not be promotion for them, and later they will go a step further that without it you cannot enjoy certain services being provided by the APC controlled states.”

He also alleged that the APC had cajoled the innocent people to register with the party by telling lies that the membership registration was organised by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, which they must partake ahead of the 2015 general elections

The PDP national auditor disclosed that the intention of the APC was to fool the nation that they had registered over 100 million members at the end of the exercise.

Adeyanju, who expressed dismay on the tactics being used by the APC to force innocent people to join the party, urged INEC to rise to its responsibility by calling the opposition party to order, saying that it was against the Electoral Acts 2010 (as amended) for any political party to force its membership on anybody.

“I think both the INEC and other appropriate security agencies should wade into the matter before the power drunk APC governors start to punish innocent civil servants that may defy their illegal directives.

“They are even coercing market men and women in Lagos State to go and register or forfeit their shop allocations outrightly,” Adeyanju added. In a separate statement, PDP commends Nigerians for shunning the APC membership registration which has resulted in the extension of the exercise.

The development, according to the party has shown that Nigerians were not fooled in spite of the attempts by the opposition party to hoodwink the people, undermine the electoral process and coax unsuspecting Nigerians by portraying the exercise as INEC voter registration.

“This is the first sign of rejection for the boastful APC. It is a clear indication that the party is neither on ground nor does it command the followership its claims.

“They have now seen that true membership and public support are not secured through media hype and propaganda,” the PDP said in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh.

“It beats imagination that the APC is making mountain out of molehill over ordinary membership registration. Besides our great party, other opposition political parties have hitherto successfully conducted the same exercise without overheating the polity as the APC unnecessarily does at the moment,” he added.

Accusing the APC of constituting nuisance in the political landscape, the PDP advised them to learn to be more humble, noting that arrogance and pride, which are their hallmark, have set the party on an irreversible downfall ahead of the general elections.

But in a statement issued in Lagos yesterday, APC’s National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed said since one of the ways to truncate democracy is by stifling popular participation, the PDP as a party stands accused of working to truncate Nigeria’s democracy by its campaign of lies against the its membership registration.

The party said the only reason the PDP called a hurried press conference to spew out lies on another party’s membership registration exercise is because the ruling party has seen the handwriting on the wall, since the registration started, and has consequently become overly jittery.

“The PDP is wrong about its claim that the APC is engaging in phantom registration. The party should know that while anyone can manufacture numbers, no one can manufacture human beings.

“Therefore, in the fullness of time, any party that gives a fake number of its membership will get its comeuppance. “The truth is that within the first three days of our registration exercise, we had met and exceeded the target we set for ourselves.

Nigerians have flocked to our party, which they have come to see more as a mass movement than just a political party. This explains why we have extended the registration period by two days.

The PDP is aware of the widespread acceptability of the APC and has started quivering,” APC said The party said instead of splitting hairs over the registration exercise, the PDP should go out there and launch its own membership drive if it wants to know what Nigerians think of it.

“PDP officials should not just sit in their Abuja offices and make phantom allegations about some party engaging in phantom registration, They should go out there and see for themselves what is going on, and how Nigerians are streaming aboard the train of change that the APC has become,” it said.

APC also asked the PDP to stop trying to sabotage its membership registration by sponsoring attacks on registration officials and hijacking registration materials in Abia and Rivers state, bribing some fifth columnists to sabotage the process in Delta, and burning down its secretariat in Gombe

The party denied getting any assistance whatsoever from INEC or using any material obtained from the commission, “except of course if the public spaces we are using for the registration are now being seen by the PDP as INEC’s property.

“The PDP accused the APC of trying to truncate the country’s democracy simply because the party (APC) is giving Nigerians the opportunity to exercise their constitutional right to associate freely.”

“It is now clear to all discerning Nigerians that it is indeed the PDP that is working hard to truncate our democracy by blocking popular participation and