The leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the South-south have resolved to work together to ensure that the party wins the 2019 presidential election.

The party, during its Zonal Executive Committee meeting on Monday in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, declared that the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, has “destroyed the economy, destabilised the nation’s security infrastructure, and made the country to slide into unprecedented suffering”.

The meeting was attended by the PDP National Chairman, Uche Secondus, the PDP governors, former governors, and senators from the South-south.

A statement from the Government House, Port Harcourt, quoted Mr. Secondus to have said in the meeting that Nigeria has collapsed and that the presidential villa was in ruins. The situation, he said, calls for a solemn struggle to salvage the country in 2019.

“This crisis is no longer a laughing matter. The country is coming to an end and we must rescue the nation,” the PDP national chairman said.

He said the PDP governors across the country were performing well, compared with their APC counterparts which he said have failed their people.

“Come 2019, Nigeria will be liberated from the hands of the APC. The APC has lost ground in all the six geo-political zones. We have to take one final step to sack the APC government,” he said.

The Governor of Rivers, Nyesom Wike, was among those who spoke at the meeting.

Mr. Wike, who appealed to PDP leaders to remain focused, said: “APC took power by deceit, but they cannot govern”.

The governor said there was need for free and fair elections for Nigerians to determine the future of the country.

While the Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Udom Emmanuel, described the South-south as a “foundation for the revival of the country”, the Governor of Bayelsa State, Seriake Dickson, called on the party leaders to support Mr. Secondus so that he could work towards party’s victory in 2019.

During the meeting, a minute silence was observed in honour of the victims of violent killings in different parts of the country.

In a related matter, the PDP criticised the statement by the information minister, Lai Mohammed, that Nigeria was in safe hands with President Muhammadu Buhari.

The party in a statement on Monday by its publicity secretary said that due to the “incompetence and corrupt proclivities of its current handlers” Nigerians have suffered untold hardship.

“If a minister of information who ought to give the correct state of affairs can announce that a government which collapsed the nation’s once robust economy and plagued it with violence, ethnic division and political tension, is indeed a safe hand, then our nation is in much more trouble under the All Progressives Congress.

“How can anybody say that the same presidency whose incompetence and bad policies are directly responsible for the unabated killings, massive unemployment and job losses, collapse of businesses and even the lingering fuel crisis which has brought untold hardship in the land is indeed a safe hand?

“This is a government under whose watch the nation has become heavily polarised along dangerous fault lines and where citizens now live in fear and mutual suspicion; where citizens are slaughtered by the day by marauders; where hunger and strange diseases ravage the people due to its bad policies.

“The reasonable take-away from the statement of the information minister is that this government has come to its wits end and has no solution for the troubles it caused the nation.’

“More so, the minister’s statement has further exposed the fact that this failed administration is not the least remorseful for the pain it has caused the people, which underpins its arrogance and disdain towards Nigerians,” the opposition party said.