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Tag: PDP

  • PDP has conceded defeat before election, says APC campaign

    PDP has conceded defeat before election, says APC campaign

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Organisation has described the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) allegation that Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu was nursing a presidential ambition after General Muhammadu Buhari becomes president as a concrete evidence that the party had conceded presidential ticket to the APC.

    Director of Strategic Communications of the APC Presidential Campaign Organisation Mr. Dele Alake said this in a statement yesterday.

    Alake, while analysing the allegation credited to the Director of Media, PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation, Mr. Femi Fani-Kayode, said the scenario started with the assumption that the APC would win the presidential polls on March 28.

    He said the time-frame of six months for the action to take place meant that Gen. Buhari and Prof. Yemi Osinbajo would have been sworn-in as president and vice president on May 29, 2015.

    “Any psycho-analyst can read the mind of the purveyors of this concoction of falsehood. Their assumption gives away the fact that they themselves accept the certainty of victory of the APC in the presidential election,” Alake said.

    He said the massive support for the APC presidential ticket locally and internationally has inflicted a devastating damage on the psychology of the PDP campaign managers, “leading to an acute case of schizophrenia.”

    Alake said the PDP presidential campaign spokesperson shot himself in the foot in his desperation to spin a conspiracy theory that was childish and merits the condemnation of all right-thinking persons.

    The statement reads: “Our attention has been drawn to a statement credited to the Director of Media of the PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation on the APC and its leaders.

    “Fani-Kayode alleged that Asiwaju Tinubu would become president by asking the Vice President Prof. Yemi Osinbajo to resign after six months in office in the belief that the president, Muhammadu Buhari, may have terminal health challenges.

    “That the message came through Fani-Kayode, who, just a few days ago, was brought to answer corruption charges, makes the message incredulous.  The whole world knows the other reasons for the incredulity of any message delivered through him.

    “However, to the uninformed, there is no iota of truth in such allegation. It is a product of infantile and wild imagination of a convoluted, distorted and warped mind.”

    It added: “In the APC, we do not indulge in oath-taking, pact-signing and such other rituals that the PDP establishment is adept at. Such PDP-induced Okija scenarios have no place in the APC.

    “Prof. Osinbajo is a thorough-bred, accomplished professor, teacher, pastor, mentor and preacher, who is nationally and internationally acknowledged as a man of probity, integrity, transparency and competence, who can never be part of such inanities.

    “Asiwaju Tinubu, on his part, is the foremost national leader of the APC, who has achieved an enviable political status, fame and stature. He has gone far beyond using subterfuge to attain any political position.

    “It is widely known globally that he had been pivotal in midwifing the most potent and formidable opposition movement that has become the nightmare of the incompetent behemoth called the PDP, and to the delight of Nigerians, the desired change they are waiting for.

    “Having lost substantial ground politically and seeing the inevitability of an APC victory at the polls, it is the PDP that is strenuously engaging in all kinds of subterfuge from hurling personal abuses and attacks on Buhari and Tinubu; to election postponement antics; to evading elections at all costs and even the unfashionable idea of foisting an interim government. It is the PDP that is generating crisis to make the elections difficult, if not impossible. Unknown to its campaign machinery, these gimmicks portray the PDP as deep in conclusive disarray.

    “Indeed, the fact that the PDP campaign machinery can construct a post-presidential election scenario in which APC would be in power is a significant testimony of their admission that they have lost this election.

    “We note this mental and psychological concession of victory to our party’s presidential candidate, but reject the odious scenario. Nigerians should please ignore this latest antic because it is untrue, ridiculous, ludicrous, mundane and jejune.”

  • Senators, Reps, INEC chiefs join plot against Jega

    Senators, Reps, INEC chiefs join plot against Jega

    •Plot to pit commissioners against Jega
    •Commission chair summons RECs for evaluation meeting on Wednesday

    Some Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) members in the National Assembly have launched a bid to pit top officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) against the commission’s chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega.

    It is the latest of alleged moves by the party to destabilise INEC as the nation prepares for the March 28 and April 11 elections.

    The plot, The Nation gathered, will see several officials, including commissioners, confront Jega on official matters   with a view to creating a crisis of confidence in the agency, and distracting its attention ahead of the polls.

    A meeting to perfect the plan took place recently  at a posh hotel in the Asokoro District of Abuja.

    Present at the dead of the night meeting discussion were several influential members of the National Assembly and some INEC officials.

    They were said to have reviewed mainly Jega’s ‘uncompromising attitude’ on the use of card readers and the Permanent Voter Cards (PVC).

    The PDP does not want both to be used during the elections.

    It was gathered that some forces in the party got the National Assembly members to meet the INEC officials on how to frustrate Jega.

    Some INEC commissioners were card-carrying members of the PDP before their appointment, according to sources.

    A source familiar with the development said:  “Some forces are working desperately to break the rank of the commission before the general election. I think some past officials of INEC are part of the plot.

    “What they are planning now is to cause disaffection between Jega and his team in order to show that INEC is not ready for the general election.

    “If they force Jega out before the poll, the nation will lose because the credibility of the general election would have been lost.”

    An INEC director said the meeting was an open secret.

    But he said Jega remains unmoved and is focused on conducting free and fair elections.

    “We got a phone alert about the said meeting but since Jega has nothing to hide, we did not respond to the move,” the INEC director said.

    “What is important is that we are focused on how to conduct free and fair polls.”

    The Abuja meeting may have been an alternative to the initial move to sack Jega.

    Top members of the PDP including the president’s confidant, Chief Edwin Clark, and the president’s campaign organisation had openly demanded Jega’s sack for allegedly working against the interest of the party and its flag bearer.

    The call was roundly condemned across the country.

    Only last Thursday, APC senators alleged at a press conference in Abuja that there was a plan by the federal government to send Jega on terminal leave this week even when his tenure will end on June 30.

    Asked about government’s position on Jega’s fate last Friday, the acting Minister of Information, Edem Duke, only said Jega’s exit will “take its natural course.”

    However, an INEC national commissioner told The Nation that contrary to the permutations of the anti-Jega forces, his tenure will end on June 30, 2015.

    He said Jega is not contemplating going on terminal leave because he is not a career civil servant who is about retiring from public service.

    “There is so much ignorance about the exit date of Jega. He is expected to leave office on June 30 and he will complete his tenure two months after the general election.

    “ Jega is also not contemplating going on any terminal leave because this is not an assignment you retire from. The position of INEC chairman is that it will be irresponsible of him to abandon his duties for a strange terminal leave which he is not supposed to enjoy any way.

    “Jega is not even drawing his salary from INEC in order to remain impartial and avoid being compromised.”

    He said there is need to explain these perspectives to enable Nigerians appreciate the fact that some people are just out to distract INEC from its electoral duties.

    Meanwhile, INEC chairman has summoned all the Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) in the 36 states and the FCT for a meeting to evaluate the preparation for the general election.

    The meeting might review the distribution of the Permanent Voters Cards(PVCs), the status of the training of ad hoc staff for  the use of Card Readers and logistics for the election.

    It was learnt that Jega invited the RECs for a session on Wednesday in order to get an update on the preparation for the poll.

    INEC has about 27 days to put everything in shape. This is why Jega is meeting with his team to avoid any slip.

    Any REC with unresolved challenges can now feel free to draw the attention of the commission to these problems before the D-Day.

    A document released by the Chief Press Secretary to INEC chairman, Mr. Kayode Robert Idowu, said the commission  might conduct mock election to test-run the card readers at least two states in each of the six geopolitical zones in the country.

    The document said: “The Card Reader units have been broadly subjected to simulation Quality Assurance, Integrity and Functionality tests and INEC has full confidence in their performance for election purposes.

    “The device has also been subjected to Performance and Conformance Test, both locally and in Texas, United States laboratories by the Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Research Centre and found to be of the highest quality grade. Besides all these, and with additional time resulting from the rescheduling of the 2015 general elections, the Commission has directed that Stress Test be conducted on the Card Reader device in mock election scenarios – two states in each of the six geo-political zones – ahead of the new election dates.”

    The commission is poised to  release the list of the 12 states for the  mock election on or before Wednesday.

  • Whose reputation will this PDP not shred?

    Whose reputation will this PDP not shred?

    If Odikanlu knows this much, and still proceeded to advise as he did, it should be quite reasonable to conclude that he deliberately wants the forthcoming elections rigged in favour of both the PDP and President Jonathan who gave him his present job

    The minute ‘Goebbels’ started the campaign for troops deployment I knew that desperation had set in. PDP, at the best of times, is like an asylum of desperadoes even when not facing a make or mar election capable of finally terminating its corruptive tendencies.  Recently, two court judges,  one at the High Court and the other of  the Appellate,  both  well aware of the prevailing security situation in the country, have done justice to their oath of office and the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria by declaring  that ‘”even the President of Nigeria has no powers to call on the Nigerian armed forces and to unleash them on peaceful citizens, who are exercising their franchise to elect their leaders, further stressing that “whoever unleashed soldiers on Ekiti State disturbed the peace of the election on June 21, 2014; acted in flagrant breach of the Constitution and flouted the provisions of the Electoral Act, which required an enabling environment by civil authorities in the conduct of elections.” A more courageous Appeal Court should, however, have made the logical consequential order of invalidating the election. But no matter, the judges upheld the dignity of the courts.

    And I salute them.

    Therefore, for anybody, however seemingly well placed, to advise the president to continue in that flagrant illegality is to demonstrate the greatest level of irresponsibility which is why the Nigerian Bar Association must move rapidly to discipline Chidi Odikanlu, Chairman, National Human Rights Commission, and a professor of Law to boot. Or how ludicrous can a professor of Law get advising, not that a decision of court be appealed but that the transgressor should continue in that damnable illegality? I verily believe he had been compromised or hugely compromised himself to vomit that baloney unashamedly on national television. And some questions naturally arise:  Is it possible that Professor Odikanlu has not heard of Ekitigate? Does he, like President Jonathan, consider a tape secretly recorded by a Military Intelligence Officer, a captain – present at the scene – who felt thoroughly humiliated seeing the manner in which bloody civilians were humiliating his Commanding Officer – a Brigadier-General- a fabrication too?  Could it be that those who recruited distinguished international diplomats to underwrite a suspected Memorandum of Understanding have also got him? Can Odikanlu tell the world what proportion of Nigeria is in a civil war?  Where exactly does intellectualism stop and banal ethnic preferences take over?

    And just in case he honestly has not heard about Ekitigate, it is that deployment of soldiers, allegedly on presidential orders, in cahoots with a notorious Igbo election rigger, who came to Ekiti with a huge stash of money withdrawn from the Umuahia branch of the Central Bank of Nigeria, thereby indicating government as the financiers of the electoral heist, as well as photocromic ballot papers. It did not end there, as also present was a group of Yoruba politicians; some currently serving on President Jonathan’s cabinet, and a Brigadier General all for the sole aim of rigging the Ekiti State governorship election for the president’s party.

    If  Odikanlu  knows this much, and still proceeded to advise as he did, it should be quite reasonable to conclude that he deliberately wants the forthcoming elections rigged in favour of both the  PDP and President Jonathan who gave him his present job. I am still at a loss as to why he had to tell Nigerians on national television that he is not a politician, even without being asked.

    ON THESE MERRY-GO-ROUND OVER THE LAST NATIONAL TALKSHOP

     First it was Akure but this past week, the Jonathan Southwest Campaign train, aka PDP’s Afenifere, which it became when the likes of Senator Omisore started attending its meetings, crawled to Ibadan. The way they are going about it, you would think only Yorubas attended the National Conference. In what has become a rare moment of candour, a respected member recently declared the Akure meeting a PDP affair which, of course, Nigerians know too well. Otherwise, can they tell us who is picking the bills? Or can these people, in the name of Oduduwa, swear by the god of iron that they have not been compromised? Already, the Anambra APC has asked Ohaneze to return its own N6.2B bribe delivered in two tranches of N1.2B and N5B. The Yoruba nation is waiting for their response. But by the way, isn’t the promised oil pipeline security contract getting too late in coming? Is this tardiness not a confirmation of how President Jonathan actually holds us in these parts? And by the way, why are these respected elders being herded all over Yoruba land on an issue that is pan-Nigerian, acting like only they attended the conference? Is the Yoruba nation in any way ennobled by this obsequiousness?

    No, I am well aware it took them a whole lot of effort to persuade the number one hater of a National Conference to become its ultimate convener. Of course, only the uninitiated would not have heard that they allegedly wrote the conference’s original memo, got one of its members appointed to jump start it and had the highest number of any group delegation. Didn’t they even attempt to also donate the chairman?

    At their urging, weren’t honest Yoruba leaders like Chief Deji Fasuan and Senator Biyi Durojaiye substituted with pliable characters? All these, and more, we know and you would almost think they are a re-incarnate of the immortal Alao Aka Bashorun whose seminal idea a national conference in Nigeria is. But no matter, a people in need of political shelter will sure lap on to something!  But, again, why has implementing the recommendations of a Pan-Nigerian conference suddenly become their business alone? The answer is simple: it is the only seemingly passable justification for their in-explainable support for an irredeemably corrupt government Awo would never have touched with the longest pole.

    But how come their traditional collaborators are not in on this?

    Are they telling Nigerians that six months is too short for President Jonathan to do anything on the recommendations beyond setting up the Adoke committee to review it but which, in truth, was a deliberate delay tactics? What Nigerians now know is that once the conference failed to produce the expected two extra years for the president, the convener most probably lost all interest.  It is the failure of that promise that made the president distrustful of their promise on Yoruba votes. This also led to last week’s campaign shuttle during which the president re-commissioned a project Obasanjo had commissioned way back 2007 at which Gbenga Daniel was present and smiling broadly. The president, whatever PDP Afenifere may be telling him, knows that he has done nothing to deserve Yoruba votes. He knew he treated the Southwest with utter disdain while simultaneously enabling another geo-political zone to take complete control of Nigeria’s regulatory agencies thereby further pauperising the Yoruba and turning erstwhile controllers of the commanding heights of the economy into hapless, marginal players whose banks were indiscriminately confiscated and their PPP projects illegally and summarily terminated. Shouldn’t President Jonathan have remembered that besides our massive votes for him in 2011, it was the Soyinka’s, the Falana’s and co, who rescued him from the mafia then out to eclipse his political life? Yoruba-friendly, indeed!

    Let me conclude this piece with the wise and timely words of an OduaPathfinder Editorial: ‘When PDP’s Afenifere says it wants the Yoruba to support Jonathan because he will implement the conference recommendations, it is obvious, from the recommendations of the Conference, that Goodluck Jonathan is not in pursuit of “True Federalism” but the strengthening of his presidency contrary to established concepts of Federalism. Hence he must be rejected at the polls. This is the historical imperative for the Yoruba Nation.”

     CONFIRMING PRESIDENT JONATHAN’S ‘IMPRESSIVE’ ANTI-CORRUPTION WAR

     The heavy security attached to Femi Fani-Kayode as he continued defence in his money laundering case at the Federal High court, Lagos, this past week, made up of “five fully armed RIOT policemen and more than four plain clothes security policemen” – all protecting a man on trial for allegedly laundering N100M, must reckon as the most brazen demonstration of President Jonathan’s selective and effete anti-corruption war.

    It is, of course, one more reason CHANGE has become a must, if Nigeria is to survive.

  • PDP queries APC’s ‘undue interest in Jega’s case’

    The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said yesterday that it was disturbed by what it called the “undue interest “ of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the alleged plot to sack the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega, before the coming elections.

    The PDP National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, wondered in a statement why the APC has been so loud in its opposition to the Jega-must, go-campaign.

    Top members of the PDP including President Goodluck Jonathan’s political godfather, Chief Edwin Clark, and the President’s campaign organisation, have openly called for Jega’s sack, blaming him for the postponement of the elections from February to this month and the next.

    Metuh called APC’s insistence on Jega’s retention on the job until the expiration of his term as “curious” and “feverish fixation.”

    He accused the APC of fabricating stories about plot to remove Jega.

    He said:”Undoubtedly, the frenzy, hysteria and spate with which the APC has been inventing stories regarding Prof. Jega’s stay in office even when nothing suggests that such was on the table, raise a lot of issues.

    “We ask, is there any underlining issue or arrangement between APC and Prof. Jega which the opposition is hell-bent to protect, informing its anxiety and apprehension towards his stay in office?

    “While it is noted that the APC is a party of one week, one lie, we in the PDP look beneath the surfaces to the deeper issues propelling the lies. We therefore challenge the APC to come out clean and tell Nigerians the real reason behind their false alarms and uncontrolled nervousness regarding Prof. Jega ahead of the 2015 general elections.

    “Finally, we wish to remind the leadership of INEC that Nigerians are monitoring its activities and series of unfolding political events ahead of the elections, and will not accept anything less than the conduct of credible, free and fair general elections come March 28 and April 11, 2015”.

    The PDP is uncomfortable with Jega’s insistence on using the Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) and card readers during the elections, preferring instead the use of the Temporary Voter Cards (TVCs).

    The PDP is also believed to have, through proxies, instituted no fewer than 14 court cases seeking the removal of the INEC chair and a ban on the use of the PVCs and card readers.

  • Disquiet in Lagos PDP over Agbaje’s comment on George

    There is an uneasy calm in the Lagos State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) over a recent comment by its candidate in next month’s governorship elections, Mr. Jimi Agbaje, claiming that a chieftain of the party, Chief Olabode George, is not his godfather.

    Agbaje allegedly made the comment during a question and answer session on the social media organised by a group of friends.

    The PDP governorship candidate was quoted as saying, “Bode George is not my godfather; he is just one of the leaders in PDP. He was not even aware when I joined the party.”

    Many of George’s associates in the party, it was learnt, allegedly took exception to this comment, with not a few of them describing Agbaje as an ingrate for publicly disowning a man who ensured his emergence as the PDP candidate despite being a new member of the party.

    At the PDP governorship primary held in December last year, Agbaje defeated about 10 aspirants, including Senator Musiliu Obanikoro in controversial circumstances, resulting in the declared results exceeding the number of accredited delegates. Agbaje’s victory was believed to have been made possible by George and another chieftain of the party, Senator Adeseye Ogunlewe.

    A source in the party said, “I think Agbaje is trying to be smart, but he won’t go far even if he wins the election. He is trying to distance himself from George and project the image of an independent-minded person, but he is going about it in a wrong way.”

    Perhaps in reaction to Agbaje’s comment, George at the weekend claimed he remains his guardian, noting that though Agbaje is an intelligent man, he must be guided on the right path, a role he said, he is currently playing for the PDP candidate.

  • Buhari at Chatham House: APC slams PDP, Presidency

    Buhari at Chatham House: APC slams PDP, Presidency

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) yesterday  condemned what it called   the needless resort to sheer hysteria by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)  and the Jonathan administration over the  appearance of the APC’s presidential candidate, General  Muhammadu Buhari, at the Chatham House in London on Thursday.

    National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said in a statement in London that  the PDP and the Jonathan administration were  “so stunned and stung by Gen. Buhari’s well-accepted presentation,” adding that  they “could have saved themselves from further disgrace by simply keeping quiet, instead of exposing their inanities.”

    ”For the spokesmen of the PDP and the Jonathan Campaign Organization to have rushed to the press to denounce what was a patriotic presentation by a high-regarded Nigerian is not only absurd but a new low, even for those who have lost every sense of propriety in their public actions and pronouncements,” APC stressed, pointing out that  “the  level of paranoia of the PDP and the Jonathan administration was so high, even before the General’s presentation, that they went to hire some poor folks to protest at the Chatham House over an issue they knew nothing about.”

    The party said it was just as well that the rent-a-crowd show boomeranged on the PDP/Jonathan administration, when those among the scanty protesters who were interviewed said they did not even know why they had come there, with some of them hiding behind their placards.

    ”The fact that the Jonathan administration wasted public funds in hiring people to protest against Gen. Buhari’s appearance is another indication of how the commonwealth has been consistently frittered away under the  clueless and incompetent Jonathan administration.”

    The APC wondered  who appropriated the funds that were “wasted on the uninformed and disinterested band of protesters.”

    It also described as the worst case of double standard for  spokesmen of the PDP and the Jonathan administration to question the basis for Gen. Buhari’s appearance at the Chatham House, when the same platform was used a few weeks back by the administration, which sent National Security Adviser Sambo Dasuki there to push for the postponement of the 2015 general elections.

    It said: “So it is OK for Dasuki to speak at the Chatham House, one of the most important platforms for any statesman, but forbidden for the APC presidential candidate to use the same platform? The needless vituperations of the PDP and the Jonathan megaphones against our candidate is precisely the reason the sinking ruling party and the  failed administration it sired have become the butt of jokes around the world.

    ”Instead of apologising for seeking to pull the wool over the eyes of Nigerians by saying that General Buhari went to London for medical treatment, these band of poor propagandists persisted in dancing naked in the public square. What a pity?”

    The APC hailed General Buhari for  his  “well-crafted, well-delivered and patriotic presentation, and his deft handling of the subsequent question-and-answer session at such a big-league platform as the Chatham House,” saying  that despite the barrage of personal attacks and death wishes by the PDP and its agents, the General’s stock has continued to rise both within and outside Nigeria.

  • APC accuses PDP of forming war committee

    APC accuses PDP of forming war committee

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kwara State has accused the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of war mongering.

    It alleged that the opposition party recently held a meeting and constituted a ’21 member war council of people who are professionals in the act of war, ahead of the elections.

    Addressing reporters yesterday in Ilorin, the state capital, APC Chairman, Alhaji Ishola Balogun-Fulani, said: “I wish to bring to your notice, the war mongering statement being perpetrated by the state leadership of the PDP.”

    He added that at the meeting, PDP declared that it was at war with the state.

    Said he: “As a prelude to this development, the state recently witnessed an unprecedented level of violence led by the PDP members, as reported in Ilorin West Local Government. Most of the local government chapters of the APC are witnessing harassments and assaults by  PDP thugs. Complaints have been made to the police.

    “This is very alarming. As a law-abiding party, the APC decided it is very fit to bring these ugly incidents to the attention of the public. What is more alarming is the war mongering statements from the party. It appears to us that PDP has a foreknowledge of this violence and perhaps a hidden agenda.

    “As a party, we are committed to democratic changes and peaceful elections. Therefore, APC is not training or funding any group or raising any committee of warfare in the state.”

    Balogun-Fulani noted that some APC members “have been marked for possible arrest and others to unleash terror attack upon, before and during the elections, as claimed by Oke-Ero, Ekito and Ilorin East local government branches of our party.”

    Reacting to the allegations, the PDP governorship running mate, Alhaji Yinka Aluko, said: “We all know sincerely that APC members are propagandists and they can decide to give different names to a particular thing. For us, people are planning strategies, particularly to win elections.

    “You welcome various suggestions and ideas.

    “If you say you want to set up a war committee, what it means is a campaign committee. I am sure when people mention it, the use of war was jettisoned that this is not war as war of guns and bows. But we are talking of strategies that we can use to campaign. PDP consists of men and people of proven integrity and honour. We are not violent. You will know sincerely that in that last few weeks, we have had this attack.”

  • PDP, Jonathan team fret over Buhari’s Chatham House appearance

    PDP, Jonathan team fret over Buhari’s Chatham House appearance

    The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its presidential campaign organisation are flying off the handle over yesterday’s warm reception accorded.  All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate Gen. Muhammadu Buhari at Chatham House, London.

    Gen. Buhari addressed contemporary issues before an attentive audience in London, with special emphasis on corruption and insecurity and how he intends to confront the twin–monsters if elected.

    But Gen. Buhari’s brilliant outing appeared to have galled the PDP’s presidential campaign organisation.

    Its Director of Media and Publicity Chief Femi Fani-Kayode and PDP National Publicity Secretary  Chief Olisa Metuh, in separate statements yesterday, were full of innuendoes over Buhari’s actions.

    Fani-Kayode said: “It is amazing that a man that refuses to participate in a debate in his own country is so ready to go to a foreign country to sell his message in a desperate attempt to curry favour with the people of that country.

    “For now, all we can say is that it is truly pitiful that a former Head of State of the Federal Republic of Nigeria believes that it is more important to win the hearts and minds of the British than it is to win the hearts and minds of the Nigerian people,” Fani-Kayode said.

  • PDP, Jonathan team fret over Buhari’s Chatham House appearance

    PDP, Jonathan team fret over Buhari’s Chatham House appearance

    The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its presidential campaign organisation are flying off the handle over yesterday’s warm reception accorded. All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate Gen. Muhammadu Buhari at Chatham House, London.
    Gen. Buhari addressed contemporary issues before an attentive audience in London, with special emphasis on corruption and insecurity and how he intends to confront the twin–monsters if elected.
    But Gen. Buhari’s brilliant outing appeared to have galled the PDP’s presidential campaign organisation.
    Its Director of Media and Publicity Chief Femi Fani-Kayode and PDP National Publicity Secretary Chief Olisa Metuh, in separate statements yesterday, were full of innuendoes over Buhari’s actions.
    Fani-Kayode said: “It is amazing that a man that refuses to participate in a debate in his own country is so ready to go to a foreign country to sell his message in a desperate attempt to curry favour with the people of that country.
    “For now, all we can say is that it is truly pitiful that a former Head of State of the Federal Republic of Nigeria believes that it is more important to win the hearts and minds of the British than it is to win the hearts and minds of the Nigerian people,” Fani-Kayode said.

  • APC accuses PDP of forming war committee

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kwara State has accused the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of war mongering.

    It alleged that the opposition party recently held a meeting and constituted a ’21 member war council of people who are professionals in the act of war, ahead of the elections.

    Addressing reporters yesterday in Ilorin, the state capital, APC Chairman, Alhaji Ishola Balogun-Fulani, said: “I wish to bring to your notice, the war mongering statement being perpetrated by the state leadership of the PDP.”

    He added that at the meeting, PDP declared that it was at war with the state.

    Said he: “As a prelude to this development, the state recently witnessed an unprecedented level of violence led by the PDP members, as reported in Ilorin West Local Government. Most of the local government chapters of the APC are witnessing harassments and assaults by  PDP thugs. Complaints have been made to the police.

    “This is very alarming. As a law-abiding party, the APC decided it is very fit to bring these ugly incidents to the attention of the public. What is more alarming is the war mongering statements from the party. It appears to us that PDP has a foreknowledge of this violence and perhaps a hidden agenda.

    “As a party, we are committed to democratic changes and peaceful elections. Therefore, APC is not training or funding any group or raising any committee of warfare in the state.”

    Balogun-Fulani noted that some APC members “have been marked for possible arrest and others to unleash terror attack upon, before and during the elections, as claimed by Oke-Ero, Ekito and Ilorin East local government branches of our party.”

    Reacting to the allegations, the PDP governorship running mate, Alhaji Yinka Aluko, said: “We all know sincerely that APC members are propagandists and they can decide to give different names to a particular thing. For us, people are planning strategies, particularly to win elections.

    “You welcome various suggestions and ideas.

    “If you say you want to set up a war committee, what it means is a campaign committee. I am sure when people mention it, the use of war was jettisoned that this is not war as war of guns and bows. But we are talking of strategies that we can use to campaign. PDP consists of men and people of proven integrity and honour. We are not violent. You will know sincerely that in that last few weeks, we have had this attack.”