TheCable

The All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential campaign council says a comment by Iyorchia Ayu, national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), is the reality and not a slip of the tongue.

While speaking at a rally in Kano state on Thursday, Ayu said: “PDP has brought us shame”, but after a few seconds, he corrected himself and said “APC”.

In a statement on Friday, Bayo Onanuga, the council’s director of media, said the comment was self-admission that his party failed Nigerians when it was in power for 16 years.

Onanuga said the APC has been struggling to fix the problems created by the opposition party.

“One of the recent reminders of the failure of the umbrella party was the Ajaokuta Steel Complex. The party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar as head of the Obasanjo era privatization programme, granted Global Steel a concession in 2004 to take over the company,” the statement reads.

“Another PDP government canceled the concession when it found out that it was a mess.

“Global Steel took the Nigerian government to court and demanded $7 billion compensation, even though it failed to fulfil the terms of the concession by making Ajaokuta a reality.

“The case lingered for 12 years until the APC administration of President Muhammadu Buhari stepped in. Global Steel agreed to end its legal battle and walk away with $496 million of Nigeria’s money.

“PDP has become a danger to itself and a big threat to our country that must be finally exterminated from our body politic by Nigerians through their votes against the party that set our country back.

“In our view, Iyorchia Ayu did not suffer from slip of the tongue. He was only reflecting an inner guilt about the grave damage his party inflicted on our country for 16 years.”

Onanuga said Nigerians must not make the mistake of allowing the PDP to get into power again.