Former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Timi Frank, has said that governors of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) were the major problem of opposition party as some of them were lobbying to travel with President Muhammadu Buhari.
Frank said aside Governor Wike of Rivers state, many of other opposition party governors are daily lobbying to be in the good books of Buhari, hence they don’t talk on national issues affecting Nigerians negatively.
Reacting to a media report that the PDP was planning to stage a nationwide protest against the Supreme Court ruling in Imo, Frank said the move was belated.
“PDP’s planned protest is medicine after death, why didn’t they protest when the former CJN Onnogen was forcefully removed from office? Why didn’t they protest when the last presidential election was rigged in favour of APC by INEC and the Army?
“Why didn’t they protest when Supreme Court unjustly threw out presidential election appeal? Today Nigerians are seeing the result of the forceful removal of Onnogen from office; it’s a bit late for PDP to protest.”
He specifically condemned in strong term the Abia state governor, Okezie Ikpeazu, who was seen on Friday travelling to London with General Buhari at a time his colleague in Imo, Emeka Ihedioha, was removed as governor.
In a statement made available to newsmen in Abuja on Saturday, Frank said it is shameful that PDP has 16 governors and only one or two is committed to the cause of the party.
“Some PDP governors are the problem of Nigeria, some of them go to the extent of lobbying the cabal to travel out with the President so as to be on his good books, they are selfish, corrupt, over ambitious and shameless.
“Some of them betrayed the PDP during the last presidential election, and gave the APC 25% in their states in return for not being prosecuted after they leave office and to win their 2nd term.”
According to Frank, a sitting PDP governor said: “If you say you dey there (APC), know I am already there. If you go to APC, I am an APC member. If you go to PDP, I am there”, what did the PDP as a party say or do? The PDP as a party could not caution or penalize him and now they want to protest?
“Apart from the governor of Rivers state Nyesom Wike and sometimes, the Benue state governor Samuel Ortom, other PDP governors are PDP by the day and APC by night; they fraternize with the APC thereby rendering PDP incapacitated and unable to function properly and cannot play the role of an effective opposition.
“Nigerians are being taken for a ride by the APC administration and the PDP can’t do anything to checkmate government because most of the PDP members and especially some governors are compromised, otherwise they could have fought Buhari the same way the opposition governors fought Jonathan, whereas those governors refused to compromise during Jonathan’s tenure.
“Nigerians should observe that apart from Governor Wike and Governor Ortom, no other PDP governor dares to criticize Buhari and even make any statement about national issues. If there is any governor that Buhari and the APC would have loved to remove, it is Governor Wike; this is because he is not PDP by the day and APC by night, which is the reason why he has the support of his people and despite all the persecution by the federal government, he still stands tall.”
While urging other PDP governors to emulate Governor Wike so that posterity will judge them well, Frank said: “It is better for these governors to decamp to APC so Nigerians and the world can see them for who they truly are, after all once you decamp to APC; all your sins (Looting and corruption) are forgiven.
“To show you how incompetent some of the PDP governors are, the Abia state PDP governor Okezie Ikpeazu, flew to London with Buhari and some APC members in the presidential jet, barely 3 days after a PDP governor colleague of his from the same South-east was robbed through the Supreme Court and his seat given to APC. He was seen smiling and grinning from ear to ear like a child that just tasted chocolate for the first time in his life.
“Instead of telling APC the truth, Ikpeazu is fraternizing with them the same day the PDP was having its NEC meeting, He abandoned the meeting and flew with Buhari to London, as that is more important to him than attending PDP meeting, the party that gave him a platform to become governor.
“The wicked flee when no man pursueth, no amount of fraternizing with Buhari and the APC can save any looting governor when the day of reckoning comes.
“Nigerians are helpless today at the hands of APC because some PDP governors have compromised for their selfish interest but they should remember that they are not God, only God knows how all these will pan out tomorrow,” Timi Frank said.
