President Jonathan’s PDP is a ‘Criminal’ Party —El-Rufai

Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, the All Progressives Congress (APC) flag bearer for Kaduna State gubernatorial election next year has described the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) under President Goodluck Jonathan as a “criminal” party.

El Rufai, who spoke during a courtesy visit to the correspondent chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists in Kaduna at the weekend claimed that the PDP he belonged to was different from the one being headed by President Jonathan, saying the party no longer had respect for the rules and processes.

 “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, said that Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, incumbent minister of Finance;  Oby Ezekwesili , a former minister of Education, 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.