TheCable

Garba Shehu, senior special assistant to the president on media, says the apology of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is a desperate attempt to recapture power.

On Monday, Uche Secondus, national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), apologised for the mistakes his party made while governing the country.

But Lai Mohammed, minister of information and culture, asked the party to return the funds the PDP allegedly looted before the party could be forgiven.

In a statement on Friday, Shehu said the point made by the minister is “apt and on cue”.

The president’s spokesman said there are moral duties that go with apologies “if the culprits want to be taken seriously”.

“The PDP is desperate to recapture power because it no longer has unhindered access to national resources for private uses and its apology should be seen in this context,” the statement read.

“The PDP has not even acknowledged the fact that it plundered the national economy, and for a party that dismissed the anti-corruption war as a political witch hunt, it is impossible to believe that its public apology comes from the bottom of the heart.

“Even desperate thieves apologise because they are caught and not because they are incapable of repeating the crime if they had another opportunity. We believe that the PDP should not only apologise for the imposition of candidates, and the culture of impunity, but must also come clean and acknowledge that they participated in large-scale corruption and massive diversions of public funds to private pockets while poverty was ravaging the ordinary Nigerians.

“We challenge individual PDP leaders to publicly and voluntarily tell Nigerians how much they stole and then agree to cough up their illegal acquisitions of wealth if they want their apology to be taken seriously.

“Apology borne by desperation to recapture power without a desire to admit how much they stole and the reluctance to return the loot is morally hollow. This goes beyond rebranding. Nigerians are not interested in brands. They want their money back.”

“Instead of addressing this cogent issue raised by the minister, the PDP veered off to accuse this administration of borrowing money but failed, in that regard to admit that they borrowed to steal while Buhari administration is borrowing to set up long-delayed infrastructure.”