 The People's Democratic Party PDP governors have accused the all-progressive Congress APC of plotting to return Nigeria into a one-party state. And DSS accepts responsibility for the attack on Sunday Bohor's house and declares him wanted. This is Plus Politics, and I am Mary Anacorn. The People's Democratic Party PDP governors have accused the all-progressive Congress APC of plotting to turn Nigeria into a one-party state. The governors expressed their determination to resist the alleged plot to foist a one-party state on the country. The governor spoke against the backdrop of Tuesday's defection of Zamfara state governor Bilu Matawale from the PDP to the APC. The ruling party has, however, denied all of this allegation. Also, the river state governor, Nyesun Wike, has criticized Matawale for betraying the PDP, saying the governors of the PDP risked their lives by traveling to appeal to Matawale, not to leave the PDP. Well, joining us to discuss this is Kala Olobodian. He is the PDP publicity secretary. Thank you very much for joining us, Mr. Olobodian. Thank you very much. Great. So, let's just cut straight to the chase. Your party had warned Governor Matawale that if he dared to leave to the APC, he was going to lose his sit. How exactly do you want that to happen? Because he's obviously still the governor of Zamfara state. He's just changed the flag of his party. Well, the way it will happen is that the plan of the party is to file the staff and ask the Supreme Court to determine whether it is possible for a party that was not in an election to inherit the candidate or to inherit the governor that has been declared as being elected on another party that was in an election. So, what we are thinking to call is the validity of the decamping of Governor Matawale into the UP Progressive Congress, which has to be declared that it is not participate in the 2019 election. Now, the chairman of your party recently, I think within the week, had described the defections of some of the party's governors as a plot to rig the 2023 elections by the ruling party. I mean, at what point does moving from party A to B translate to rigging? And I've heard that interview that he granted. He spoke while they were outside protesting. I'm trying to understand what is happening is that these people have moved to another party because maybe they have what they're looking for in your party in the APC. How does that translate to rigging elections in 2023? Well, what we said is that the APC is planning to rig an election in the 2023. We are seeing that in effect that the APC is not campaigning. They just have nothing to campaign with. They cannot approach me here. But it's not campaign season yet. It's not campaign season yet, is it? They're not campaigning yet. 2023 is still far from now. What we are seeing, which was on the plan, is that APC has achieved nothing in six years. And as such, they will have nothing to contribute to meet with the people and say, these are the needs of the achievements that we have made. All the promises of ensuring that the APC could be one million to one dollar. All the plans and promises that they made to naive that they will pay 5,000 million to the agate across the federation. All these are the concrete promises. And the position of the democratic party is annoying fully that the APC has nothing to take to the people in 2023. So what they do is to lobby, to buy, to intimidate, to coerce all our governments by using the instrumentality of co-operation of the government. So we are seeing it clearly that they will have nothing to campaign with in 2023, except to rig an election. So in two months, you have lost two governors. One was, of course, the governor of Cross River State, Professor Ben Ayade, and then Governor Bello Mazzawale. And you've also lost certain members of the national and state assemblies. Aside from the accusations of rigging that your party has made, do you not feel that maybe you need to look within the party? Maybe you have cracks and maybe most of the people who left your party seem to be unhappy with how the party has been or treated them. I'll tell you what. The governor of Cross River State gave one of the reasons why he left the party for the APC, saying that the party structure in the state was not given to him. And he felt that as a governor of a state, he should be the leader of the party. Now he's gotten that from the APC. Shouldn't this be a wake-up call for the PDP to look within itself to find out what it is that it's doing that's making these governors, who are supposedly your soldiers, to be leaving for the APC? That must really be a news song from the Governor of Cross River, Ben Ayade. He did say that he said he left the PDP because structure was not given to him. I believe absolutely that would be a news song because one is another point when he left the People's Democratic Party. Governor Ben Ayade said he lost the People's Democratic Party in great respect. He never said that the party opened their name. But who going back to the application that you have brought up, saying that it was denied structure? I will advise as an investigative reporter, as an investigative journalist, you will need to go back to Cross River State to go and find out. Well, here's the news headline. I'm from that state. I've been there. I've been there. I was there for the past one month, so I'm not in any way giving you fake news. So as an investigative journalist, I'm letting you know that this is, this is not news. So I'll ask again, was Professor Ben Ayade in charge of the party structure in Cross River State? Let's not forget. There's also been a recent scenario where he and a member of the House of Representatives were at loggerheads as to the fact that the Governor tried to impose a person into the seat of the Senate. That seat is still in question, where you had Odey take the seat, where you, and Jerry May has been on, you know, the case with the courts, saying that he was the one that the party supported to be the preferred candidate. But then, of course, Dr. Odey was the Governor's candidate, which seems to be that the party is not necessarily banding behind the Governor. Please educate me. of the state on their own, were able to structure the party in their own state. But what happened in the case of Crosseva, as he concerned the narrative, was that due to the contestation, the other people on the other end were able to win the structure in an election of the party who were cited by Highness in line with their rules. And at the end of the day, the party organized a Congress on the basis for the position you were talking about, that is for the Senate, the party organized a Congress on the basis of the lease of the National Assembly, where the process was binding. And then when it was election in the Congress, yes, I was in the party as I said, and at this time we won the election and the other issues went to the Crosseva. Once issues go to Crosseva, the party becomes a comeback. It depends on the outcome of the Crosseva decision. So actually we don't understand where the allegation is coming from, that the party. And I'm sure that I have we never accused a new democratic party. And I mean the talk of the party, I haven't worked against it. You wouldn't say that. Okay. Let's move on to other issues in the PDP. Like I did ask your deputy some days ago, before the party started having governors and members of the National Assembly leave, we noticed that the former speaker of the House of Representatives, former Senate president, I beg your pardon, had been going around the states to try to unite the party. So obviously it meant that the party did have problems and you were trying as much as possible to deal with it. But how well has that worked out? Because we still see people leaving the party, even though Governor Wike of River State has said that no matter how many people leave, the party is well and strong enough for 2023. But in the case of Matawale, as we see, we didn't see you as angry as you are right now in the case of Ben Ayadeh, but we're seeing the PDP over and over talking about the case of the Zamfara State Governor. Why does it hurt so much that the Zamfara State Governor has moved to the APC? You need to understand the circumstance that surrounds the emergence of Matawale as Governor of the Zamfara State to be able to grasp what happened and how the people of Otachi Party are reacting this way. The people of Otachi Party have to react this way because we went to the court and in the court, the Supreme Court ruled that the party that came second would be sworn to be sworn in as a Governor. And the Supreme Court also ruled that the APC was not in the election. So we find this thing that is part of the ruling of the Supreme Court that Matawale would directly and decodemnically go around to now return the ticket to the party that was not in the election. So this is what we are challenging and this is what we will take to the court. There's nothing wrong with testing the laws of our nation. It's not only within the confines of the parliament that laws are amended. We can go to court and in the wisdom of the logistic, they will say that where the APC was not in the election, the campaign into the APC was wrong. And they can also make full assent otherwise. But what is important to us as a democratic policy party is that we will have sensitive choices so that in the future it will serve as a president. Okay, interesting. Now the PDP, let's talk about the state of the nation for a second. You and I live in this country and we're seeing all the things that are happening, banditry, the level of insecurity, the cost of living rising high, the Naira taking a deep dive. I mean, the list is endless. A lot of people have wondered why the AP, the PDP had been quiet for so long and then all of a sudden the PDP is waxing lyrical and some have even branded the PDP as opportunistic because they believe that the PDP has not played opposition politics as they should have compared to when the APC was on this side of the divide. Well, in exchange, anybody would describe the party as opportunistic. It's totally strange. And as a matter of fact, I cannot comprehend the situation in which anybody, whoever that portion is in Nigeria would describe the PDP as not opportunistic. There is no point in this country in which the party has not had a point on everything that had happened in the country in the last six years of President Obama's divide. There were no points in which party members are not speaking out. So what would anybody mean by saying I think it's just not opportunistic? How? When PDP was in government, the party was criticized. The government of Ndegu Ndegu Ndegu was criticized. As a matter of fact, the engagement that the APC did then bothered Ombrikanji. But what we are engaging in, because we understand the nuances of this nation, because we are concerned about the feeling of the ordinarian here, and because we know the importance of aligned situations to go beyond, to go beyond normal. Because of that, we are engaging in constructed criticism of what the government is doing. So it is totally strange for anybody to accuse people of a democratic party, of being opportunistic, opportunistic over what? Is PDP responsible for the amount of tenure that APC and President Obama have to worry and pick up? Is the PDP responsible for the fears that the anguish that Ndegu Ndegu has been thrown into? So there's not going to be any opportunistic in this. Let me talk, let's talk about the nomination of Loretta Onoche by Mr. President for the position of the INEC Chairman. Of course, that is an issue that has been kicked against by men including your party. Why do you think that she is not the best person for the job? It is clear, because the constitution provides that if you are a country member of the political party, you cannot be an umpire at the independence and electoral convention. I will find this to it that Loretta Onoche, who is a country member of the United States Congress, who has been campaigning at a very local of the APC, who is also a personal assistant of Mr. President, will be nominated as an umpire in Wigah's Good Democratic Party with Contestation. The basic question that I will ask is that will President Obama, who has a point of color, the color will continue as he commission on his INEC? He will never do that. Just the same way, if you go to the Democratic Party, have the responsibility to oppose the nomination of Loretta Onoche. You are going to be going to Ironland to create confusion and to work towards the making plans of the 2020. Let's look at the issue of insecurity now. I want us to face this squarely. How impactful has the PDP and their governors and the members of the National Assembly been in tackling the government, in pointing the governments in the direction that it should be going in dealing with this issue? Let's not forget that in the issues of banditry and kidnapping, it seems to be a free for all these days. People have been kidnapped on a daily basis. The President is still talking about open grazing, even though 17 state governors had decided that they would put a ban on open grazing. Of course, let's talk about what's happening in the Southeast, especially in Emo state and of course a couple of other states around there where police stations are being targeted, INEC offices are being burned. What has been the PDP's reaction on that? And of course, what's the party doing to also dissuade people from carrying out these dastardly acts? For all the Democratic Party, our position is that we believe in true pedagogy and we believe that the direct solution to the menaces that are confronting their ideas today lies in true pedagogy. Because that will enable each state to decide what it wants. It will enable the each state to determine whether they want to go for open grazing or they will go for ranching. It will also help the state, the daily state, to know whether they are satisfied with the presence of the federal police or they will need a state police or contemporary police for the communities. So we believe that what a federal government needs to do, particularly the Brunaria situation, is to allow for true federalism and that position will condemn and condemn atrocities across the nation. We have preached to Nigerians on the need for us to live our democracy and on the need for us to live our country. We have also told the federal government that technology will be a faster way out of our situation in their country. We have advised the federal government, to engage in our borders and make sure that they create the command bottom of all the trees and engage at the border and don't leave the border open and pull us the way it is. But the president will not listen to the advice of the Democratic Party. Let me ask a question. The PDP has ruled this country for 16 years and all of these recommendations that you're making and I'm not in any way you know but I want to play the devil's advocate obviously. All of these recommendations of restructuring of true federalism of using technologies and border controls, how did the PDP put these things in place? And I'm asking if the PDP had done these things, would we be having to tell the government of Bahari to do these things? We saw the problem when it arises. They will not have the kind of division in the country as we have today under the new Democratic Party. They will have no need to create solutions. So as you see, after the new Democratic Party left power in 2015, the country was more stable, are more united than what we have today. So you could not have been holding us responsible for not creating a proper solution to the problem that didn't exist. But all the things that we're seeing happening today are types and shadows of what had started under the PDP administration. Whether we like it or not, it may not have been as loud and clear as we're seeing it today. But if the PDP had such insight, why didn't you lay the ground rules for this kind of things not to happen? Instead of waiting for it to become a full blown problem, again, I'm not in any way holding brief for the APC government. But I'm asking, you have been there for 16 years. You could have fixed some of these problems that have become a big monster today. It is very, it is very, it is very, very unfortunate. The way we as Nigerians forget our SDGs. We talk about Nigerian non-fighting solutions. It is the PDP government not fighting the insolvency to the fringes of the North East. It's building up in town. So why are we pretending about our SDGs? The truth of the matter is that the Bahá'í administration has managed the security and that is why whenever you come in Nigeria today, you have all forms of insecurity. So you cannot hold us responsible as the party. If there are no issues, if there are no problems, yes, there was this one, Boko Haram, he wanted to give you something. But I am telling you, and it's a record that the force, because if you don't do that, and that's obvious, the insolvency has reported the fringes of the North East. Insolvency was not a problem of the North West. It was not a problem of the North Central. It was not a problem anywhere in the town. So what do we find today? So you cannot say that the News and Catholic Party, you need to create a government. You need to create the rules. You need to solve the problem. When you have no such problem, at the time that the News and Catholic Party left office in May 19, 19, 1915, was there anywhere where the bomb was fighting? So these kind of people who came together under the spirit of the political party to hide their power and had no meaning as to what they wanted to deploy that power to, had no plans, had no purpose, and had thrown the country into a mess. So you cannot continue to be responsible. Okay. All right. Well, we want to thank you, Kala Lombordinho is the National Publicities Secretary of the People's Democratic Party. Thank you so much for being part of this conversation. We appreciate it. Thank you very much. All right. Well, thank you all for staying with us as still plus politics. When we return from this break Sunday, it's being declared wanted by the DSS. We'll talk after this break.