Jonathan vs Buhari: Ondo PDP, APC in verbal war

Ondo State chapters of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), on Sunday, engaged in a verbal war over who will win the March 28 presidential election between their candidates, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari and President Goodluck Jonathan.
While the APC said efforts of Governor Olusegun Mimiko and other PDP chiefs in mobilising traditional rulers, teachers, youths and workers for Jonathan would be an exercise in futility, the PDP declared that Buhari would not get the required 25 per cent votes in the Sunshine State.
The APC, in a statement by Mr Kunle Adebayo, said Buhari, “who has been tested and trusted would win the March 28 presidential polls both in Ondo State and other parts of the South-West region”.
He said: “We challenge Mimiko to point to a single
federal project or intervention to show faith and commitment
to the people of Ondo State. Instead of good life and
progress, Ondo State people, like other Nigerians, have
suffered failed promises, anxiety, poverty, gloom and
retrogression under the corrupt government of PDP. All these account for the reason Ondo State people have turned to the APC and Gen. Muhammadu Buhari to seek redemption for our failing nation.
“General Muhammadu Buhari has been Head of State before
and has a record of discipline, spartan lifestyle and unquestionable patriotism. His efforts to protect Nigeria and her economy from mindless corruption, ostentatious living and unpatriotism are good deeds to his credit till date.
“His legendary efforts in dealing decisively with the
vicious religious uprising of the deadly Maitasine religious
sect in 1984 remain incomparable with the current selfish
and escapist approach of President Jonathan.
“As a military Head of State, Buhari not only allowed his
deputy ample power to contribute to state matters, he
allowed his subordinates insight into the running of
government to the benefit of all Nigerians. This is unlike the
present rudderless ship of state steered by executive
incompetence and hijacked by ethnic subordinates and palace
jesters.
“General Buhari is older now and is again blessed with a
younger, high performing deputy who has the verve, exposure
and competence to defend Nigeria and save it against the
gloom and doom which PDP is drifting Nigeria into.
“Gen. Buhari is a disciplined man and as head of a
disciplined family, he shall not allow or unleash his
cultured wife on a bewildered society unlike what the outgoing President Jonathan has been forced to do by his matron.”
But the PDP said the APC was daydreaming if it thinks it will get the required 25 per cent vote in the South-West state.
PDP leaders, including the governorship candidate of the
party in the October 2012 election, Chief Olusola Oke, Special Adviser to Jonathan, Hon. Kingsley Kuku, Chief Femi Adekanmi and the immediate past Chairman of the
party, Hon Ebenezer Alabi, who met in Owo, said the APC does not have supporters in the state.
To Kuku, Jonathan would win in not less than 21 states.
“On March 28, the PDP will win in five states in the South- East and the six states of the South-South. In the South-West, Ondo, Ekiti, Oyo belong to our party while we will have a larger chunks of votes from Ogun and eventually take over Lagos”.
Oke, who read the communiqué of the meeting, said the party
leadership and members have resolved to remain active,
committed and loyal members of the party, saying they would
not, for any reason, abandon the platform they had laboured to build in the past 16 years.
His words: “We all resolved unanimously that we believe in
the transformation agenda of Mr. President. He has been able
to make our economy the largest in Africa. Our rails are
working. The aviation industry is doing well. There is
economic empowerment for our people. There is capacity
building. Our roads are looking good. Our health facilities
are improving and, therefore, he should continue.
“We resolved to return to our various wards and unit to
maximize the returns from these levels for Mr. President. In
this regard, it is our belief that Ondo State votes will be
the highest in the South-West. We have also resolved
unanimously that we would vote for PDP candidates in all the
elections, irrespective of the controversy that surrounded their emergence. We believe that PDP is the best thing that has happened to Nigeria and that we must sustain the party beyond 2015.
“The large army of members you saw here today are people who, hitherto were unwilling to be part of the arrangement for
the campaigns that was being undertaken. We observed that
the essence of having the Labour Party and the PDP together
in Ondo State was to maximize votes in the state for our party.
“We observed that going along the way things were going
would not give us that result. So, we have decided to go
senatorial district by senatorial district to mobilise our
people, to encourage them, to appeal to them to come out and
work hard for our party.”