Ahead of the 2023 general election, the ruling All Progressives Congress APC has disclosed that the opposition Peoples Democratic Party PDP has already conceded defeat, following its continued resort to making what the APC described as “idle conspiracies and wild allegations” regarding the polls.
APC said unlike the PDP, it is not in the habit of rigging elections.
John James Akpanudoedehe, the national secretary of the APC’s Caretaker Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee CECPC, disclosed this in a statement issued on Monday, August 16, 2021, in Abuja.
According to him, the allegations “being bandied by the Peoples Democratic Party PDP on the procurement of E-voting machines and plans to rig the 2023 elections, is clear testimony that the PDP has already conceded election defeat long before the 2023 electioneering process.”
The statement added that in PDP’s desperate bid to remain in public reckoning, ‘it has recently resorted to many diversionary activities, including the recent misguided court case instituted against the national caretaker leadership of the APC which has been generally dismissed as an abuse of court process.”
Part of the statement reads; “The PDP has now issued an irrational and baseless statement on imagined plans to rig the 2023 general elections.
“The PDP is clearly unsettled and afraid of the APC’s widespread popularity. Hence, the PDP’s imaginary, baseless and concocted allegations of a plan to rig the 2023 elections. The APC will not learn the PDP’s bad habits on election fraud.
“On the part of the APC, there is no need to rig any election because the electoral choice has already been made by Nigerians who continue to vote for the APC, our latest victory being the bye-election for the House of Representatives seat for the Lere Federal Constituency in Kaduna state.
“Going by PDP’s past and current antecedents, it is obvious that Nigerians will continue to reject the party.
“PDP’s rejection is further reinforced by APC’s widely accepted and hugely successful membership registration exercise which has recorded APC membership strength at over 40 million. The gale of defections by PDP members and leaders to the APC has left the failed opposition party in a camatose state, rendering it incapable of matching the APC in a free, fair, and transparent electoral contest.
“The rudderless PDP leadership has undoubtedly brought the failed opposition party to its knees permanently.
“Under the President Muhammadu Buhari-led APC government, the credibility of elections has continued to improve. The APC will continue to support constitutionally-permitted innovations by our election management bodies to ensure the sanctity of votes and the entire electioneering process. In all elections, valid votes must count and the will of the majority of electorates must prevail. That is our progressive mantra in the APC.”
