The All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council (APC-PCC) has called on the Nigerian electorate to reject the African Democratic Congress (ADC) and its presidential candidate Alhaji Atiku Abubakar in the upcoming general elections following allegations that the party has failed to pay its workers for over 12 months.
In a statement on Monday in Abuja the APC-PCC spokesperson Mr Dele Alake described the ADC leadership’s actions as ‘unconscionable wicked and reprehensible’ arguing that a political entity unable to meet its internal administrative obligations lacks the competence to manage national governance.
Alake criticised the ADC’s National Working Committee headed by Senator David Mark as National Chairman and the former Osun State Governor Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola as National Secretary accusing it of neglecting its workforce’s welfare.
‘It has come to our attention that the National Working Committee of the African Democratic Congress led by Senator David Mark as Chairman and Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola as Secretary has refused and neglected to pay party staff for over a year’ Alake stated.
He added ‘We find it unconscionable that a political party that has made many grandiose promises to hoodwink Nigerians owes its workers for more than 12 months. Owing staff who come to work every day and who rely on the salaries for their daily sustenance is wicked and reprehensible.’
The APC campaign spokesperson further claimed that the developments reveal the ’emptiness and insincerity’ of opposition leaders posing as alternative governance options. He argued that opposition leaders pursue power out of self-interest and hostility toward President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and national development.
‘A party that cannot pay its cleaners and workforce cannot be entrusted with our country’s affairs’ Alake declared.
Drawing comparisons with the records of key ADC figures Alake pointed to Atiku Abubakar’s history with his private business ventures and Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola’s tenure as governor of Osun State.
‘Atiku Abubakar the ADC’s leader and presidential candidate has a reputation for owing his employees. While he regularly junkets to the UAE staff at his Gotel Communication and other businesses also went months without pay and staged protests over unpaid salaries and other benefits’ Alake alleged.
Commenting on Aregbesola the APC PCC spokesperson said: ‘The record of the ADC National Secretary Rauf Aregbesola on paying workers’ salaries and pensioners in Osun State where he was a governor for 8 years was abysmal. As governor he mismanaged the state’s finances to the point that he could not pay workers. His government thus introduced quarter-salary and at times half-salary payments. As for pensioners he abandoned them for more than four years’.
Characterising the ADC leadership as ‘birds of the same feather’ Alake urged working-class Nigerians and voters to distance themselves from all ADC candidates contesting in the general elections.
‘We are sounding a warning to Nigerians and working people now: reject ADC. Reject Atiku Abubakar and reject all ADC candidates in the next general elections. They do not have the interest of our country and our people at heart’ the statement concluded. ‘A party that aspires to govern Nigeria and which cannot be trusted with something as basic as the management of its own affairs and the welfare of its workforce should be rejected by Nigerians.’