TheCable

Abdullahi Adamu, senator representing Nasarawa west, has accused the new Peoples Democratic Party (nPDP) of attempting to “blackmail” the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.

nPDP is a faction of the All Progressives Congress (APC) that left the PDP in 2013 to team up with the APC for the 2015 elections.

In May, the group wrote John Oyegun, national chairman of APC, listing several grievances and demanding a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari — a sit-down which is seemingly unlikely.

In a statement issued on Thursday, Adamu accused the nPDP members of attempting to “distract Buhari from focusing on governance,” saying they are only interested in fighting “personal political battles”.

The statement read: “I belonged to the nPDP and as I have said before, there was nowhere we held a meeting to resurrect the group for the purpose of protesting alleged marginalisation of our former members by the APC-led federal government. Apart from that, the basis of the group’s allegation is tenuous.

“While the antics of the so-called nPDP to portray the Buhari administration as being unfair to the group in its appointments are reprehensible, I commend the president’s governance style and his litany of progressive decisions that are in tandem with the collective aspirations of our party.

“If, however, the group’s ultimate agenda is to prepare the ground to pull out of the APC at the national convention or thereafter, I have good news for our teeming members nationwide: it is a notorious fact that some of the people concerned have already started jumping from one side of the aisle to the other in the chamber without a formal declaration of defection.”

The senator added that “time shall tell whether or not these persons actually count for something in the bigger picture of Mr. President’s bid to have his presidential mandate renewed by Nigerians who are enamoured by his anti-corruption war and his integrity in government”.

Senate President Bukola Saraki and Yakubu Dogara, speaker of the house of representatives, are among the members of the nPDP.