The All Progressives Congress (APC) and the main opposition party, the People’s Democratic Party PDP(PDP) have engaged each other in war of words over the visit of Vice President Yemi Osinbajo to Niger state last weekend. Professor Osibanjo was in Bida as a special guest at the turbanning of four illustrious sons of the emirate by the Etsu Nupe and Chairman of the Niger State Council of Traditional Rulers Alhaji Yahaya Abubakar.
However, the PDP in a statement said the ruling APC government in the state did not make a hype of the visit because it had no project that the VP would have inaugurated.
State Chairman of PDP in a post on Saturday also accused the APC government of non-performance, saying the government during the last visit of Professor Osinbajo to the state was made to inaugurate uncompleted drainage system.
“As though that is not enough undoing, the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo was not shown any project or land mark achievement by either the government or the APC legislators to inaugurate in Bida.
Beji said :”The PDP promises to bring back the days of projects, development, vision and mission with clear cut articulate policies to reset the state back to its glory from 2023.”
In a swift reaction, the APC in a statement by its state Secretary, Mr. Ibrahim Aliyu Khaleel said the PDP has lost touch with reality and is also not aware of protocol.
Khaleel said the visit of the vice president was ” a private visit” and that the government of Alhaji Abubakar Sadiq Sani Bello was only present to accord the utmost respect to the number two citizen of the country.
According to the APC, the administration in the state has many tangible projects executed for the benefits of the ordinary people of the state if the visit of Professor Osibanjo were to be an official state function adding that: “The APC allows the people to speak for it, we don’t play to the gallery as the PDP use to do and now wants us to do”.
Khaleel reminded the PDP that one of the projects that would have been inaugurated were the visit a state function was the electrification of Beji town, a contract awarded to a top PDP functionary by the last administration which was not executed after the total contract sum was collected and diverted to private purse
“The PDP has forgotten so soon that it is the APC government that connected Beji town to the National Electricity grid by executing that project. Even if there is no project to commission the Beji electricity project would have been on the table but like said earlier the APC does not believe in playing to the gallery,” the statement said.
Khaleel said the PDP should face its internal crisis instead of ” poking its running nose” into issues that does not concern it.
“We want the PDP leadership to focus on its internal crisis which has made it impossible for it to conduct election in 8 local governments. A party that cannot manage its internal affairs should not poke its running nose into the affairs of another party.
“We therefore advise the PDP to face its mirage of problems including series of criminal cases against it in courts instead of chasing shadows,” Khaleel said.
