Fani-Kayode blasts PDP, demands Atiku’s disqualification from 2023 presidential election

The former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode, on Sunday, described the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as a party of scammers and carpet-baggers.

In a statement posted on his social media handle, the ex-minister identified the processes leading to the emergence of the PDP National Chairman, Iyorchia Ayu and the presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, as causes of the current crisis in the party.

The All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain urged the Federal Government and security agencies to take former Senator representing Kogi West, Dino Melaye, up on the statement credited to him on the emergence of Ayu as PDP national chairman.

Melaye had in a chat with journalists recently said all the PDP governors spent money at the party’s national convention held in December last year to ensure the emergence of the former Senate president as national chairman.

He also charged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to disqualify Atiku from the 2023 presidential race.

Fani-Kayode was a key member of the PDP before he joined the APC in September last year.

The statement read: “It follows that Ayu’s election was a product of corruption and criminality and so was Waziri Atiku Abubakar’s as their party’s presidential flagbearer at a later convention which was conducted by him.

“A national chairman that is a product of corruption and that was elected as a consequence of financial inducements, monetary gifts and the illegal use of public funds cannot be deemed as being legitimate and neither can he conduct a legitimate convention for a presidential flagbearer.

“Ayu and his entire NWC together with the PDP presidential and vice presidential candidates are illegal, illegitimate, bogus, fake and repugnant products of cash-induced and cash and carry elections which, according to Melaye, were funded with public funds provided by the PDP Governors.

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“It follows that they are nothing but a party of scammers, carpet-baggers, vote-procurers, petty thieves, pick pockets and yahoo-yahoo criminals whose malevolent disposition and evil operations are shrouded in darkness and secrecy, who behave like Al Capone’s Cosa Nostra and who cannot be trusted with power.

“I hereby call on the Federal Government and the security agencies to invite Senator Dino Melaye to shed more light on how much each of the PDP Governors gave for Ayu’s ‘election’ and I call on them to arrest and prosecute Iyorcha Ayu and the entire NWC of the PDP for being accomplices to a criminal act, beneficiaries of the crime of corruption and accessories after the fact.

“I also call on INEC to nullify Ayu’s so-called election as National Chairman and to do same to that of Abubakar Atiku’s who was purportedly elected as the party’s flagbearer.

“The public confession of Melaye, a leading member of the opposition PDP, who claims to have witnessed these corrupt events and practices during the course of Ayu’s election and who is no less than the spokesman of Atiku’s PCO has changed everything and taken the matter to a new level.

“Before we only speculated about the rot, rodents and filth that is in the PDP but today we have been provided with the evidence that we need thanks to Dino. By his confession alone it is clear that they have fouled up the whole process, broken the law and proved that they cannot be trusted with power.

“The individuals concerned must all be disqualified by INEC and their last two party Conventions and everything that was done in both must be declared illegal, null and void.

“Everyone involved in these illegal acts, subversion of the electoral process, violation of the electoral laws and monstrous crimes, including Ayu, his entire NWC and their presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar, must be barred from participating in any way in the coming elections or from running for public office as a consequence of their irresponsible acts and criminal activities and they must be arrested and prosecuted for their disgraceful and corrupt practices.

“No-one is above the law. If you violate INEC’s rules, violate the provisions of the Electoral Act, break the law and indulge in criminal activities during the conduct of your party conventions there must and will be consequences.”

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