Tambuwal, El-Rufai are expired politicians –PDP

The Peoples Democratic Party has described the All Progressives Congress as a “waste basket.”

Reacting to the primaries recently conducted by the APC ahead of the 2015 general elections, the ruling PDP stated that the majority of the candidates who have emerged on the platform of the opposition party were “expired substances.”

Writing on its Facebook page, the PDP particularly took on the embattled Speaker of the House of Representatives, Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal, and a former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai.

The party described Tambuwal and El-Rufai, who defected from the PDP to the APC and recently won the latter’s tickets for the governorship elections in Sokoto and Kaduna States, respectively, as politicians who re-emerged from its “dump site.”

It also named Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara State, a former Speaker of the House of Representatives and Katsina State APC governorship candidate, Aminu Bello-Masari, as those emanating from the PDP “waste basket.”

“The All Progressives Congress is PDP’s waste basket. Many candidates who so far emerged from their (APC) primaries are either expired substances or spent quantity dumped by our great party.

“Besides, three out of the four APC presidential candidates were PDP members while over one third of the APC candidates for the National and State Assembly emerged from PDP dump site,” the PDP stated.

But Tambuwal has said that he would not join issues with the PDP or key presidential aides, no matter the level of provocation.

Speaking through his Special Adviser on Media, Mr. Imam Imam, Tambuwal stated on Twitter that only individuals who lack basic home training and manners would engage in heated exchange of “insults” in the public domain.

“The training we got at home won’t allow us to insult others,” he stated.

The Speaker, however, advised the PDP to learn some lessons from the way the APC and its members nationwide had so far conducted themselves during the party’s primaries (still ongoing).

Noting that the difference between the APC and the PDP was clear, the head of the lower chamber of the National Assembly was clearly confident that he would win the governorship election.

“It will give our democracy a huge boost if other parties conduct their primaries in largely the same orderly manner as the APC did its own.

“This mandate given to me now will be held in trust. We will march to the elections in confidence. I assure our leaders that I won’t fail,” he added.

Also, a former governor of Kwara State and currently lawmaker representing Kwara Central Senatorial District at the National Assembly, Dr. Bukola Saraki, described the PDP as a party of “noise makers.”

Commenting on Twitter shortly after he clinched the APC ticket to return to the Senate, Saraki boasted that his political protégés from Kwara State would beat their opponents from the PDP during the 2015 general elections.

Arguing that the PDP primaries have been bedevilled with violence across the country, the former governor claimed that the APC primaries have been “free of rancour.”

He described the APC as his “home” and urged his political associates who refused to dump the PDP when he defected to the opposition party to reconsider their decision.

“To our few brothers and sisters who were deceived to stay in the PDP, now you have seen that the PDP has no place in Kwara State. I urge you to come back home to the APC.

“As we have had a rancour-free primary in Kwara, you can be rest sure that we have put the machinery in place to replicate the same feat at the national level.

“I am delighted that even in the other party, with all the noise they make, it is a protege of my school of thought that defeated all of them,” Saraki tweeted.

Meanwhile, former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar has insisted that all the aspirants jostling for the APC presidential ticket will do a better job than President Goodluck Jonathan.

Lamenting that the Jonathan-led Federal Government was “too far from the people” and “hard to hold to account”, he promised to empower the states and local government councils with a view to making governance more responsive.

“I have visited almost every state of this great country in the last month. The clamour for change is unmistakable!

“Dear friends, any of us APC aspirants is well qualified to be President. Please do support whoever wins the primaries.

“My plan for a ‘Nigeria for all’ includes making government closer to the people, reducing Federal Government’s powers and empowering states and local government area,” Atiku wrote on Twitter.