PDP Crisis: APC Knocks Turaki Over Call for "Foreign Invasion" of Nigeria

The ruling All Progressives Congress has slammed the new National Chairman of the PDP, TANIMU TURAKI, for calling the attention of the international community to the crisis rocking the opposition political party. The newly elected National Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, TANIMU TURAKI, had beckoned to the international community, particularly the United States, to come save Nigeria’s democracy. TURAKI said Nigeria was not only facing the problem of Christian genocide, but also facing threat to democratic governance from the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC. He made the call while addressing some journalists at the National Secretariat of the PDP in Abuja, after gaining access to the premises following initially resistance from the police and rival political thugs. Recall that the rival faction of the PDP loyal to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, NYESOM WIKE, had taken over the PDP secretariat, better known as Wadata House, insisting that it was still in charge. The expelled National Secretary of the party, Senator SAMUEL ANYANWU, told newsmen that the PDP National Convention in Ibadan, Oyo State, over the weekend, which produced the new leadership of the party, was a mere jamboree. However, the tensed atmosphere at the Wadata House degenerated after Oyo State Governor, SEYI MAKINDE, and his Bauchi State counterpart, BALA MOHAMMED, arrived at the scene in the company of TANIMU TURUKA and other members of the new National Working Committee. In a statement later, the National Publicity Secretary of the APC, FELIX MORKA, implied that the statement made by TANIMU TURAKI amounted to a call for foreign invasion of Nigeria, which he described as reckless and unpatriotic. MORKA said in a statement that TANIMU TURAKI looked and sounded desperate, confused, incoherent, and grossly lacking in stamina and capacity to manage his PDP crisis, having been in the position of National Chairman of a faction of the party for barely seventy-two hours. The APC spokesman said TURAKI was expected to set himself on an urgent peace-building mission to bring his party's warring factions together in dialogue towards finding possible pathways to peace and reconciliation, but he chose to call for foreign invasion of Nigeria as his first official act. He said the APC-led Administration trust the international community to dismiss the PDP's call as a pitiful distraction from the failure of its internal democracy and embarrassing disintegration, while urging Nigerians to stand firm in support of the ruling party.