Ahmed Makarfi, Former Caretaker Chairman and current Presidential aspirant of  the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has reminded his fellow aspirant, Atiku Abubakar that Nigerians don’t vote for anybody on the basis of opinion polls.

He said: “we should not be deceived by opinion poll. Nigeria voters do not follow media rating. We should not expect general public to swallow everything we give him. Even if we do it in PDP, the general public may not do it. So, we cannot afford to make mistake in our choice.”

Makarfi spoke, in Enugu today, Friday, apparently referring to the recent opinion poll conducted which scored Atiku high, over and above other PDP aspirants.

The former governor of Kaduna State insisted that for PDP to win the 2019 Presidential election, delegates must pick a credible candidate, stressing the socio-economic and political problems facing Nigeria could only be tackled by someone who had the fear of God and respect for humanity.

“We should weigh our decision in choosing our candidate and our decision should be in tandem with the decision of many Nigerians.

“I am travelling around the country on roads to assess the state of the country. I will fly at a point but first I will largely use the road to have sufficient knowledge before I take off.

“We no longer trust each other. We must elect a person who has the capacity to bring peace to the country. I did it in Kaduna State and I am ready to do it again as a President.

“I was the first governor in the country to appoint people from the Southeast and other parts of the country. As a governor, an Igbo man was elected into the Kaduna State House of Assembly. I believe in equal opportunity to all irrespective of where you come from.”

“So, Honourable Dogara has no problem whatsoever with the APC and he did not do anything similar to what Senator Saraki did. He emerged as Speaker and he also ensured as a patriot that an APC member emerged as Deputy Speaker. He was not so desperate as to mortgage that position to PDP in order to cling on to his speakership. He knew the difference between personal interests and his party interests.”

These were the words of the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole, when he addressed news men today, Friday in Abuja, on the issue concerning the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara.

Oshiomhole said: “I have absolute confidence in Right Honourable Yakubu Dogara. I said something earlier that it was Sen. Saraki that complained. He did not only complain that he was not given juicy appointments but that Rt. Hon. Dogara was also not given and I wondered aloud whether Saraki thought that Dogara is not capable of speaking for himself, afterall he is the Speaker.

“So, if those were the views of Rt. Hon. Dogara, it was not for Sen. Saraki to parrot because Hon. Dogara is capable any day of speaking for himself.

“The point I tried to make is that Saraki wants to drag everybody along with him.

“The APC as a party and myself as Chairman, we have confidence in Hon. Dogara. I have had very useful interactions with him. We have had couple of meetings. He had shared with me in trust, his concerns that have to do with issues in Bauchi state and I have taken steps to address those issues to the best of my ability and I have shared with him that I am excited that we are getting very positive results.”

The Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, and his Deputy, Ike Ekweremadu, have raised an alarm that the Federal Government has commenced the execution of a plot to implicate them and other People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Senators for the last Tuesday invasion of the premises of the National Assembly by men of the Department of State Services (DSS).

In a statement signed by their media aides, Yusuph Olaniyonu, and Uche Anichukwu, today, Friday, the duo said that after receiving the interim report submitted by the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Idris Ibrahim, the Presidency constituted a closet panel today, Friday, to review the report and submit a final recommendation.

The mandate of this closet panel, the two legislators said, is to turn facts on the head and blame the invasion of the National Assembly on the two leaders of the red chamber of the National Assembly, who will now be presented as having worked in tandem with the sacked Director General of the DSS, Lawal Daura, to stage the parliamentary security breach.

“We have been reliably informed that instead of the Presidency to set up a public inquiry or judicial commission to probe last Tuesday’s early morning invasion of the National Assembly as being demanded by the general public, they have commenced a process of manipulation and fabrication.

“The Presidency has set up a closet panel, which would work to a predetermined conclusion in which they will now claim that the Senate President and the Deputy Senate President worked in collusion with ex-DG of DSS, Lawal Daura to stage the invasion.

“They want to shield the fact that the previous night before the invasion and up till the early hours of Tuesday, there was a meeting of the All Progressives Congress (APC) senators and that the plan was for them to be moved in a Coaster bus into the National Assembly complex later that morning for them to purportedly remove us and select a new Senate President and Deputy Senate President.

“Their plot only failed because the media, particularly social media, Nigerians and international community responded very swiftly as some legislators who came into the complex were refused entry by gun-wielding, hooded security operatives.

“Now, they want to turn the facts on its head and blame us for their botched plot against democracy. We are hereby alerting all Nigerians and members of the international community that the present Nigerian government will stop at nothing to destroy, suppress and incapacitate the opposition. This is their new tactic and plot as we approach the period of the 2019 polls.

“We hereby reiterate our earlier position that the coup against democracy as represented by last week Invasion must be probed through an independent judicial commission of inquiry which will produce a comprehensive report. We reject any manipulated and fabricated investigation.”

The presiding officers added that they have also uncovered a sinister plot in which the government plans to use the anti-graft and security agencies to incarcerate them and some members of their families from next week, all in a bid to break their will and effect their removal.