The Presidency has warned Nigerians to be wary of the recent apology by the Peoples Democratic Party, as the move could be borne out of desperation to return to power. The Presidency in a statement issued on Friday by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu described the apology as 'less-than-honest apology stressing that the party had huge moral duties going by the apology if it must be taken seriously.
“The PDP is desperate to recapture power because it no longer has unhindered access to national resources for private uses and its apology should be seen in this context.
“The PDP has not even acknowledged the fact that it plundered the national economy, and for a party that dismissed the anti-corruption war as a political witch hunt, it is impossible to believe that its public apology comes from the bottom of the heart. Even desperate thieves apologise because they are caught and not because they are incapable of repeating the crime if they had another opportunity.
“We believe that the PDP should not only apologise for the imposition of candidates, and the culture of impunity, but must also come clean and acknowledge that they participated in large scale corruption and massive diversions of public funds to private pockets while poverty was ravaging the ordinary Nigerians.
“We challenge individual PDP leaders to publicly and voluntarily tell Nigerians how much they stole and then agree to cough up their illegal acquisitions of wealth if they want their apology to be taken seriously. Apology borne by desperation to recapture power without a desire to admit how much they stole and the reluctance to return the loot is morally hollow.”
He said for the party to be taken seriously, those who looted public treasury must show remorse, return such loot and then restore the damage done to the nation before promising not to behave in such manners. He posited that anything short of that was mere gimmick to deceive ordinary Nigerians.
