The Action Congress has condemned the continued use of the Presidential Villa as a venue for the meetings of the Board of Trustees of the Peoples Democratic Party.

The National Publicity Secretary of the AC, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, described Aso Villa hosting of the PDP BOT meetings as an abuse of power and accused the Presidency of using the facilities of government for the benefits of only one party.

Mohammed said the Presidency had not shown the democratic separation of party from government.

“The moment a party gets into power its government is no longer the government of a political party. It becomes the government of the people and the parties. Ideally, therefore, the meeting of the PDP BOT should hold at its party headquarters. Or, if they so choose, it may hold at the residence of the chairman of the BOT.

“But when you now take the meeting to the Villa it means that you are equating government to the party and behaving as if whatever the party decides is what is good for Nigerians,” the AC spokesman said.

But the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Party in the 2007 election, Prof. Pat Utomi, said the implications of the venue of its BOT meetings were of lesser evil compared to other failings of the PDP-led government in the last 10 years.

Utomi said, “They may hold their meetings anywhere. We have bigger problems than such a surreal issue. The big deal is the quality of leadership that the PDP has provided in 10 years in power. What is relevant is that in 10 years of PDP in power, we have seen more poverty in Nigeria than there was before it came.”

Utomi advised the media to be more concerned about bringing positive changes to the country’s legal and socio-political systems to ensure free and fair elections in 2011.

Also, the Chairman of the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties, Alhaji Balarabe Musa, said the lack of credibility of the board members posed more danger than the venue of these meetings.

He said, “The credibility of the board itself is a more serious issue for us. The BOT of the PDP seems to be losing credibility because of Obasanjo as Chairman; the same Obasanjo who is being alleged to have committed so many offences and who is yet to be investigated and prosecuted.”

Asked on Wednesday at the PDP national headquarters to explain why the Presidential Villa regularly hosts the party’s BOT meetings, the Special Assistant to Prof. Rufai Alkali, the PDP National Publicity Secretary; Mr. Yahaya Abubakar, said his boss could not speak for the BOT.

He referred our correspondent to the office of the BOT at the Legacy House, Alhaji Shehu Shagari Way.

The BOT office was locked and full of cobwebs, with the premises littered with dry leaves and filth, when our correspondent visited the place.