Paul Ibe, the media aide to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, has warned that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) might be walking into a trap set by President Bola Tinubu’s ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
He described the recent decision of the PDP’s National Executive Committee (NEC) to affirm Samuel Anyanwu as the National Secretary as a scam, saying it would not work.
This comes amid the adoption of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) as the official platform of the opposition coalition.
The decision on Anyanwu may lead to the defection of many members, especially in Atiku’s camp and beyond, to dump the major opposition party.
The PDP Acting National Chairman, Umar Damagun, while addressing journalists after the 100th NEC meeting, held behind closed doors at the party’s national secretariat in Abuja, announced that the party members agreed that Senator Anyanwu will continue to act as national secretary.
Speaking to Daily Post, Ibe claimed that those at the centre of the crisis were in cahoots with the APC, saying they cannot be the ones trying to resolve the crisis.
According to him, “How can you have a resolution of whatever may be the crisis that the party, a major opposition party, is going through, when the people, the ones at the center of the crisis, are in cahoots with the ruling party, and are also the same ones trying to resolve the issue?
“It is all a script. It does not work that way. These are the same people who are in bed with the ruling party, focused on destroying the party. They cannot be the ones trying to resolve the crisis.
“Why were the members of the party, who are working in bed with the All Progressive Congress, APC, harassing and intimidating members of the BoT who had come out for the meeting, necessitating a change of venue?”
Atiku’s aide also condemned the alleged intimidation of some of the NEC members by the security agencies, leading to a change in the venue of the meeting.
Ibe cautioned that the party should be careful of walking into a trap of the ruling APC to destroy the opposition party.
“If we answer these questions, the party will begin to realise that it is walking into a trap of Tinubu’s ruling party to destroy the opposition party. Some of them are enablers.
“They are part of the script. Until the right things are done, we will continue to see it all as a scam.
“We also condemn in its entirety the action of some members of the party who are in bed with the ruling APC in using police to intimidate NEC members, the highest organ of the party, who had come out to hold a meeting as endorsed.
“It’s a replica of what’s seen under a military dictatorship. What they are trying to do is to force us into a one-party state,” he warned.