The newly-elected governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress in Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, has said that the Peoples Democratic Party of today is a “criminal” party. El-Rufai said the PDP he belonged to was different from the one being headed by President Goodluck Jonathan, saying the party no longer had respect for the rules and processes. He said, “It is a big mistake to say that the PDP of 2003 is the same as the Jonathan’s PDP.
“The PDP that I was a member had rules and processes. Let me give you one example. As a minister of FCT, I demolished a house belonging to the Chairman of the PDP.
“Today, no minister of the FCT can touch the house of a member of the PDP National Executive Committee. The PDP in 1999 was not the same as the PDP of today. The PDP of today is a criminal PDP.
“They have no regard for rules. They say that they are Peoples Democratic Party but they have no regard for the people and democracy.
“I was minister on the platform of the PDP but I was not a minister because I was in PDP. I was a minister on merit.”
He said he was not appointed a minister of the Federal Capital Territory by ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo as a member of the PDP but as a technocrat.
El Rufai, who spoke during a courtesy visit to the correspondent chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists in Kaduna on Saturday, said the incumbent Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala; a former Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesili and himself were appointed by Obasanjo as “technocrats” and not on the basis of political party membership.
“The minister representing Kaduna State was Nenadi Usman, because the governor of Kaduna as at that time disowned me and said that I did nothing for the party. But Obasanjo told him that ‘whether you like it or not this man is going to be minister because I have a special assignment for him,’” he said.
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