APC, Presidency plotting to vacate 1999 Constitution, PDP alleges

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has accused the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Presidency of plotting to vacate the nation’s constitution.

According to the main opposition party, President Muhammadu Buhari’s private ten-day trip to London without transiting power to the Vice President, as required by the constitution, was an act of dereliction.

A statement on Monday by the spokesman for the PDP, Kola Ologbondiyan, said the development has confirmed the opposition party’s position Buhari and the APC are not interested in governance but seek to vacate constitutional order to foist an authoritarian system on the country.

“Such dereliction of office can only come from leaders, who do not have respect for the people they governed but always muscling their way to power through intimidation, harassment as well as official manipulations, as witnessed in the rigging of the February 23 presidential election by the APC.

“Moreover, Mr. President’s abandonment of governance, particularly at this critical time when our nation is facing grave security and economic challenges, signposts the level of impunity and recklessness that will characterise our nation in the next four years, if the stolen presidential mandate is not retrieved from the APC.

“What else, beside an authoritarian propensity, can explain why the Buhari Presidency relegated our Constitutional Order by declaring the application of Section 145 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) which directs that the President transmits power whenever he is travelling out of the country on vacation, as a mere ‘convention’,” the party said.

The PDP noted that authoritarian tendencies are usually characterised by absolute lack of trust for other government functionaries, which it said, could likely explain the failure to transmit power to the Vice President.

It added that such proclivity can also lead to a sequestering of institutions of government, if not checked.