Defection: APC accuses PDP of luring lawmakers with money

Nigeria’s main opposition party has accused the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, of using public funds to lure back some of the federal lawmakers who defected from the ruling party to the opposition.

The The All Progressives Congress, APC, condemned the alleged action by the ruling party, terming it “political horse trading carried too far.”

In a statement issued in Lagos on Tuesday by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed, the party said the PDP, in a show of desperation, rolled out an enticement package that promised $2 million (N328 million) to each Senator who returns to the PDP; $1 million (N164 million) to a member of the House of Representatives, and $10 million (N1.64 billion) to a “leader” who abandons the APC for PDP. It claimed that the price tag for the federal legislators from Rivers State was even higher – $5 million (N821 million) each.

The APC, however, said no amount of inducement would stop the change on the horizon ‘as the long-suffering people of Nigeria were ready and eager to vote out the PDP next year.’

The APC said the five House of Representatives members who took the PDP’s bait and returned to the latter were ‘dirty traitors.’ It said when the lawmakers initially defected to the APC, they were neither forced to do so nor given any incentive beyond the rare opportunity offered them to be a part of the looming change.

The opposition party expressed the hope that the defectors would declare the money they allegedly collected from the PDP to those who voted them into office. The party said it also hoped the lawmakers would pretend to be democratic by sharing the money with their constituents.