The Peoples Democratic Party has denied the statement attributed to the Buhari Media Organisation that the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, and South-East governors were working for President Muhammadu Buhari’s reelection.
A statement by the party after its
meeting with party leaders in the zone accused the All Progressives
Congress of inciting the people of the region against Ekweremadu and
the PDP governors in the zone.
The statement signed by the
Publicity Secretary for the PDP in the South-East, Dr Chijioke Ekwegh,
said the BMO was only playing mind games.
The PDP said apart
from poverty,insecurity,electoral fraud, unemployment, gagging the
press, nepotism and corruption, the Buhari administration had not
achieved anything tangible since 2015.
The opposition party urged
Nigerians to reject Buhari and vote for its candidate Atiku Abubakar
in next month’s presidential poll.
The statement partly read,
“The attention of the South-East zone of the PDP has been drawn to an
amateurish propaganda by the Buhari Media Organisation, a pro-All
Progressives Congress group, wherein it claimed that Ike Ekweremadu and
South-East PDP governors of PDP were working for APC’s victory in
the 2019 presidential election.
“The fact that it came from the
BMO clearly shows that it is a lie from the pit of hell meant to divide
and disorganise the PDP ahead of the general elections.
“This
misadventure by the BMO has, however, helped to expose the source of the
lingering attempt to run down our party leaders in the zone, incite the
people against them, and create bad blood among Ndigbo. Although we
are in an election season, such extreme propaganda and mind games can’t
be tolerated.
“The PDP remains one big family and every attempt, such as this, to play on our intelligence cannot stand.”
Meanwhile,
the pan-Igbo sociocultural group, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, has faulted Buhari’s
claim that his administration has been fair to the South-East.
Spokesman for the group, Uche Achi-Okpaga, told our correspondent that Buhari was being “economical with the truth”.
The
President said during an interview on Arise TV on Monday that he had
been fair to the South-East, in spite of the poor low votes (198,000)
he got from the region in the 2015 presidential election.
He
said though any local government could have given him the figure he got
from the zone, he appointed ministers from the region to key positions
in his government. But Achi-Okpaga said the appointment of ministers
was a statutory matter which made every state entitled to one in line
with the constitution of the country.
The spokesman said, “Is
that a favour? That is a statutory matter; if it were not so, he
(Buhari) would not have appointed any one from the South-East.
“Apart
from ministerial appointments, what other appointment has he made from
the zone? Let him tell us. In all ramifications, he has not been fair to
the Igbo. He is being economical with the truth.”
Share your thoughts