The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has said that the bitter in-fighting and hostilities in the Presidency and the governing All Progressives Congress (APC) were the consequences of a stolen mandate.

According to the PDP, the mandate was stolen from its presidential candidate in the February 23 elections, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.

In a statement Saturday by the spokesman for the PDP, Kola Ologbondiyan, the PDP said the vicious fight for positions as ‘booty’ of a stolen mandate has further exposed the APC and the cabal in the Buhari Presidency as power mongers who are only interested in power grabbing, treasury looting and plundering of national patrimony and not in the welfare of Nigerians.

The statement said, “In the past few days, Nigerians painfully watched a reality show of the fate that had befallen them in the past four years, as persons close to the President openly declared that a cabal has been running the affairs of our nation.

“Nigerians watched as a faction within the power-grabbing APC, in a loud protest in our nation’s seat of power, Abuja, earlier in the week, listed the Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari, Mr. President’s cousin, Mamman Daura and his long-standing friend, Isa Funtua as members of the said cabal that have appropriated the Presidency and held President Buhari hostage.

“In a counter-protest, the supporters of the cabal had also accused a prominent APC governor of a North West state and his ‘brother’, who is a prominent former minister and former governor of a South-south state, as those fanning the embers of discord in the Presidential Villa to achieve their desperate ambition for power in 2023.

“The despicable scenario is a pointer to the disposition of the APC, as a sanctuary of power mongers and looters, as well as accounts for the unpardonable selfish reason the APC and President Buhari’s handlers rigged the Presidential election.

“Moreover, this shameful in-fighting, dragged to the streets, is a further confirmation of President Buhari’s incompetence and leadership failure, which is directly responsible for the painful economic and security situation which our nation has been sunk in the last four years”.

The PDP noted that the harsh reality is that, with the situation at hand, there is no hope in sight for the nation under the APC and the Buhari Presidency.

“Nevertheless, while the PDP stands with millions of Nigerians in the determination to retrieve our stolen mandate at the appropriate judicial panels, our party finds it ludicrous that in the face of herculean challenges confronting us as a nation, the concern of the APC and Buhari Presidency is the sharing of ill-gotten electoral booty”, the statement added.