Kola Ologbondiyan, National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in this interview with TEMIDAYO AKINSUYI in Abuja, speaks on the just concluded National Convention of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), his party’s preparations for the Ekiti governorship election and other issues. Excerpts:

Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, the newly elected national chairman of the APC said one of his major tasks is to make sure the PDP collapsed. What is your take on this?

I didn’t hear that from him but if indeed he said so, he is trying to play God. And no man born of a woman can ever play God. It is God that has the design of what the life of men will be, not man. Having said that, the PDP will want Comrade Adams Oshiomhole to know that he is an undertaker in APC. He has come with a mission which is to bury APC and that is very unfortunate for the party. Even if APC that is currently on the throes of death manages to survive, Oshiomhole will need to go and submit to EFCC and defend the corruption allegations against him before he can speak to Nigerians about leading a party that has become so discredited and its members are running away to PDP .


The APC just had its national convention in Abuja. Were you impressed by the outcome?

I saw pictures of delegates fighting and broken chairs and I was ashamed. APC is not a political party. In PDP here, we usually address them as soulless mob, and that is what they are. That is why up till today, it cannot rise beyond the fragmentation upon which it came into existence. We all can name leaders who are the owners of the APC. Can anybody name the owners of PDP? No. The PDP has been in existence for almost 20 years. We are in 2018, our formation started in 1998 and in the development pattern of a man, you must start as a toddler, then you grow into adolescence and a full grown man. The way APC is structured today, it cannot grow beyond the toddler stage because it has refused to be cohesive . It has no leaders that are determined to structure the party and grow it. It will always remain a mob and that is why you discover that one group is speaking in direction of A, another will be speaking in direction of B, yet another will be speaking in direction of C. This is because the party is built around individuals and not the people, who are the owners of Nigeria. They are sharp contrast to the PDP, a party that is owned by the people of Nigerians.

The Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed said your statement that the Presidency and APC should account for N10tr in the last three years is unfounded because even the annual budget is not up to that amount. How did you arrive at that figure?

They cannot say it is unfounded. Have they taken a check of the losses that has been incurred under this administration? Have they taken account of the theft in the NNPC, the fraud in NHIS or the theft in the North East Initiative project? Have they taken account of the money spent by Babachir Lawal, former SGF in cutting grass, running into several millions of naira for which he was sacked but not prosecuted? We have challenged them to speak on the MTN bribe in the villa and they have responded to that. Corruption lives in the Villa with them. They must tell Nigerians how the losses that we have incurred came into being within the government of a party that prides itself as waging war against corruption.

How prepared is your party for the forthcoming governorship in Ekiti and are you confident that INEC will conduct a free and fair election?

We are going to force INEC to conduct a free and fair election in Ekiti state.

How will you do that?

Nigerians are going to make a demand of that. Nigerians are watching the developments and they are going to demand for a free, fair and credible election from INEC. We are watching all the shenanigans going on within INEC. We are watching how a blood relation of one of the contestants has taken charge of INEC and they think they can manipulate the election and get away with it? This country belongs to all of us and no human being is superior to another as guaranteed by the 1999 constitution (as amended). So nobody should think that he has INEC in his pocket and as such will determine the outcome of the election. Nigerians will determine what will happen in the Ekiti election as well as the 2019 general elections.



Read more https://independent.ng/corruption-now-resides-in-aso-villa-ologbondiyan/