The newly registered All Progressives Congress (APC) is a real alternative to the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the Chairman, Senate Committee on Environment, Dr. Bukola Saraki has said. Saraki, who spoke in Ilorin, Kwara State yesterday said, "before now all the parties claiming to be opposition parties are merely regional parties."

Describing the registration of APC as a good development, Saraki posited that, "by the APC's registration, Nigeria now has a real opposition party. "Let me congratulate the opposition figures on the registration of APC. It's good for our democracy.

Now we have a national opposition party. "Elections will not be taken for granted again. APC is good for our democracy. It is a real alternative. It will make those of us in the Peoples Democratic Party to sit tight," Saraki said. The former governor of Kwara State said, "but time would tell how cohesive the APC people were. "Before we have regional opposition parties and that made them unattractive.

It will take a lot to dislodge a party as large as PDP." On the issue of oil theft in the country, Saraki prescribed the diversification of the nation's economy as a panacea. He posited that those concerned should have the political will to tackle the menace of oil theft headlong.

"There should be laws to check the activities of oil thieves. We should have the political will to tackle headlong those involved in this act of economic sabotage."