APC free to boycott national dialogue – PDP

The Peoples Democratic Party has said that the All Progressive Congress is free to boycott the national dialogue announced by President Goodluck Jonathan on October 1.
The party, in its response to the decision by the APC to boycott the dialogue, said the opposition party needed to know that attendance at the conference would not be determined on political party basis.

It said since majority of the people had agreed to take part in the conference, APC was free to carry out its threat.

APC, after its National Executive Committee meeting, which was held in Abuja on Tuesday, said that the dialogue was nothing but a mere constitutional amendment process, which it said was already ongoing.

The Interim National Publicity Secretary of the party, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, described the planned conference as diversionary.

Besides, he said the Federal Government lacked the credibility to organise such conference.

He also said that the conference was meant to divert the attention of Nigerians from the country’s several problems, including insecurity, corruption and infrastructural decay.

Mohammed had said, “In any event, we see this thing as nothing but a diversion and what are we talking about a national conference for when even the President himself has said that the outcome of that conference would be subjected to the approval of the National Assembly?

But the National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Chief Olisa Metuh, told journalists in Abuja on Thursday that the APC was known for planting the seed of discord in the country.

He said the leadership of the opposition party had probably concluded that it had nothing to offer at the conference, hence its decision to stay away.

Metuh said, “The national conference is not going to be about political parties. It is about Nigerians and attendance won’t be by political parties.

“The APC is free to boycott if it has nothing to offer. Infant, its leadership might have concluded that it had nothing to offer. So, there is nothing we can do about that.

“This is a party that has penchant for sowing discord and ethnicity among Nigerians. It is a retrogressive party.”

The PDP spokesperson told Nigerians not to take the APC seriously, adding that it should not be allowed to drag the country backward.

He said since the conference had been accepted by majority of Nigerians, members of the National Assembly and associations, then Nigerians should forget the views of the opposition party.