Lai Mohammed
The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has said that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) response to the call for its National Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur to resign has done nothing to convince Nigerians on why its chairman should not step down now.
In a statement issued in Lagos yesterday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said not even the PDP’s resort to rationalisation – an age-old defence mechanism used by die-hard thieves, when they are caught with their hands in the cookie jar, has changed the reasons for the call.
“We called on the PDP Chairman to accept moral responsibility and step down from his high office because his party is right at the centre of the biggest corruption scandal in the history of our dear country, and also because his son is among the suspects. Our call has nothing to do with Alhaji Tukur being on trial or not, and we made that clear in our earlier statement.
“Because the PDP is the ruling party, in a country where unprecedented corruption has left the people badly impoverished, any linkage between a huge scandal like the fuel subsidy scam and the party immediately raises a red flag over the commitment of its government at the centre to effectively tackle this cankerworm.
“It is therefore imperative for Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, whom we agree has made a name for himself within and outside the country, to uphold that name and keep his integrity intact by vacating the leadership of the PDP today. He should not just step down, he should do so with arousing speech that will be a reference point for all time, and convince millions of our youths that Nigeria still has men of integrity,” it said.
ACN said dragging the name of its leader and top member into the fray, which is nothing short of rationalisation, is diversionary and amounts to throwing enough mud at the wall with the hope that some of it will stick.
It, however, reminds the PDP that since ACN is known for taking on issues instead of personalities, it will ignore the mud thrown at it, which is nothing but a sign of the desperation of a sinking behemoth that the PDP has become.