PDP Dangles Dollars To Lure Back Defected Federal Lawmakers, APC Alleges

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has accused the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) of using public funds to lure back some of
the federal lawmakers who defected from the ruling party to the APC.
The APC condemned the strategy as political horse trading carried too
far.
In a statement issued in Lagos on Tuesday, the APC’s interim
National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed, said the PDP had, in a
show of desperation, rolled out a mouth-watering enticement package
that promises two million US dollars to each senator who returns to
the PDP and one million dollars to each member of the House of
Representatives. In addition, he said the PDP was offering $10 million
to each “leader” who abandons the APC and returns to the PDP. The
statement alleged that the price tag for the federal legislators from
Rivers State was even higher, at five million dollars each.
Even so, the APC spokesman said there was no cause for alarm,
asserting that no amount of inducement would stop the change on the
horizon since, according to Mr. Mohammed, the long-suffering people
of Nigeria were ready and eager to vote out the PDP in next year’s
elections.
The APC described the five members of the House of Representatives
who reportedly took the killer bait and returned to the PDP as dirty
traitors, adding that when they 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. Mr. Mohammed said
he hoped the double defectors would declare the blood money they
collected from the PDP to those who voted them into office,
challenging them to pretend to be democratic by sharing the money
with voters.
“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 bore holes
that 10 million dollars can sink, or how far such a huge amount will
go in building cottage hospitals and health clinics,” the APC stated.
The party added, “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.”