THE Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has slammed the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) over the exorbitant cost of its nomination forms for the 2023 general elections.
The APC had on Wednesday announced that its expression of interest and nomination forms for the presidential and governorship elections will go for N100 million and N50 million, respectively.
The cost of forms for other elective positions in the party are: Senate, N20 million, House of Representatives, N10 million and State House of Assembly, N2 million.
Reacting on Thursday, PDP National Chairman Iyorchia Ayu said the cost of the nomination forms has cast the ruling party in the image of rogues and hypocrites.
Ayu, in a statement signed by his Media Adviser Simon Imobo-Tswam, described the fees fixed by the APC as insensitive.
“It is most insensitive, and mind-boggling. In fact, all those buying the N100 million and N50 million nomination forms should be investigated for fraud,” he said.
The PDP chairman said the APC has disenfranchised and dashed the hopes of millions of Nigerian youths who applauded President Muhammadu Buhari when he signed the ‘Not Too Young To Run Bill’ into law in 2018.
“Nigerians can all see what the APC is: a fragmented alliance put together to capture power and inflict maximum pain on Nigerians, including their own members.
“Nigerians will recall how in 2014, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, now President and leader of the APC, told Nigerians that he had to borrow N27 million to buy his nomination form.
“The same man, as leader of his party, has now sanctioned the sale of the same forms at N100 million. I am told that’s an increase of N370 per cent”.
Ayu recalled how the Nigerian economy was booming in 2014 but has now been run aground due to the incompetency of the APC.
He urged Nigerians to return the PDP to power in 2023, noting that it (PDP) was better than the APC.
“The incompetent APC presidency has now run the economy aground, making Nigeria the Poverty Capital of the World.
“How then can impoverished APC aspirants buy nominations at such prohibitively high costs? And yet, only recently he (President Buhari) preached ‘equal opportunity’ to them.
“We, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), are different. We are a mass movement for the Nigerian people. This is why our nomination fees are soft and democratic.
“When you compare us with the APC, the difference is clear. This is why we must return to power to save Nigerians from this insensitive government.”
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