Politics

APC campaign: Ayu’s gaffe at Kano rally not slip of tongue

The Presidential Campaign Council of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) says the gaffe of the National Chairman of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Sen. Iyorchia Ayu, at the party’s presidential campaign rally in Kano on Thursday should not be seen as a mere slip of tongue.

Ayu, while speaking at the rally held at the Sani Abacha Stadium in Kano, said “PDP has brought us shame”.

The former Senate President, who made the error while speaking on the reasons the people of Kano State should not vote for the APC, had said: “We are supposed to be the leaders in Africa and everywhere in the world, we should be respected. PDP has brought us shame and we will not continue to retain them in power… APC.”

Reacting to the development, the Director, Media and Publicity, APC Presidential Campaign Council, Bayo Onanuga, in a statement issued on Friday, said Ayu’s gaffe was “truly an articulation of the inner mind” of the PDP chairman.

Onaguga added: “While in charge of Nigeria, the PDP also left our national infrastructure, roads, rail, airports derelict. Notably, Atiku and his boss, Obasanjo failed to deliver on vital road networks, including roads to their towns. The APC government of President Buhari has now done the road to Atiku’s town in Jada, Adamawa State.

“Worst of all and most callously, the PDP shared the $2.1 billion meant to procure arms to fight Boko Haram insurgency, making our soldiers vulnerable to the superior weaponry of the enemies of the state and allowing insecurity to fester.

“In its degenerated state, the PDP in the last few days has been making outlandish claims and raising false alarms to just grab the headlines because the party and its perennial presidential candidate have nothing tangible to tell Nigerians because of their sordid past.

“If PDP campaign spokesmen are not making false claims of billions being stashed away by our presidential candidate, their sleepwalking Director-General, Aminu Tambuwal who has no record of any achievement in Sokoto State, where he has been Governor for almost eight years, will construct imaginary plan by APC to hack INEC server and BVAS.

“Nigerians, we believe, know the true hackers. Atiku’s PDP did so in 2019 and may well be planning to do so this month. PDP has become a danger to itself and a big threat to our country that must be finally exterminated from our body politic by Nigerians through their votes against the party that set our country back.

“In our view, Iyorchia Ayu did not suffer slip of the tongue. He was only reflecting inner guilt about the grave damage his party inflicted on our country for 16 years.

“In the coming elections, Nigerians should never make the error of allowing this discredited party smell the scent of power. Iyorchia’s PDP has not learnt any lesson and has not changed its behaviour. The Nigerian voters should simply consign it to the dustbin of history, while keeping faith with the APC, which offers Renewed Hope,” he said.

The Star