By Bode Olagoke
Abuja
The Labour Party (LP) has said that knowledge of rules and norms guiding party membership “do not give the All Progressives Congress (APC) powers to close its door against interested members.”
It, therefore, urged the APC to be more focused on program of action instead of “making dictatorial and anti-democratic pronouncements while pretending to be democratic.”
It stated this in a statement issued in Abuja yesterday by the National Secretary of the Party, Barrister Kayode Ajulo, in response to the recently reported ban on the influx of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) members to the APC.
It said: “APC is bereft of knowledge of rules and norms guiding party membership. For the avoidance of doubt, no registered party has the power to shut its doors against Nigerians, especially a registered party. And in any case, it is rather preposterous that an APC that was cobbled out of a motley array of parties, including defectors from PDP is now the one pretending as if it is different from PDP.”
The statement added that many members of APC “who now pride themselves as progressives were actually former PDP kingpins. Senator Bukola Saraki, Mallam El-Rufai, Governor Rotimi Amaechi, Barnabas Gemade, Jeremiah Useni and a host of others were staunch PDP leaders.”
“For us in the Labour Party, the APC is nothing more than the New PDP. It is indeed interesting that a party like APC with antecedent of political prostitution, transfiguration and serial metamorphosis is now the one coming out to play mister clean.
“The APC should advise its leadership and the President-elect to be more focused on program of action instead of making dictatorial and anti-democratic pronouncements. It is obvious from the attack on the PDP that the APC is merely trying to cover up its quest to make Nigeria a one-party state.”
