Press Release
The Peoples Democratic Party Presidential Campaign Organisation has dismissed as false, the claims by the All Progressives Congress that the Goodluck Jonathan administration is sponsoring ethnic militias to disrupt the scheduled March 28 and April 11 general elections.
The Director of Media and Publicity of the President’s campaign office, Femi Fani-Kayode, who reacted in Abuja on Sunday, also justified the employment and compensation given to families of the victims of the Nigerian Immigration Service employment tragedy, saying that the APC’s criticism of the gesture was unfortunate.
“Once again, Lai Mohammed has indulged in lies on behalf of his lying party, the APC. It is not true that the PDP or the Federal Government is sponsoring ethnic militias. It is also not true that N9 billion has been allocated for that purpose”, he said.
Speaking further, Mr. Fani-Kayode said “It is rather the APC that has consistently supported and sponsored the Boko Haram both in substance and in their utterances over the last few years. This recourse to telling a lie every day by the opposition party will not in any way assist them in achieving their objectives.
“We will remain focused on the issues. We will talk about their weaknesses and we will also talk about the achievements of President Goodluck Jonathan on why it is that it is important that he is re-elected back into power on March 28. That is our focus.
“We have said it before and we will say it again: these people have become prisoners of their own delusions; they have become victims of their own hallucinations and fantasies. They have become paranoid such that they are sleeping and hiding under their beds. They are running from their own shadows and what we are witnessing is simply the judgment of God on them. They have lost their peace. They are running when nobody is chasing them and that is why they are saying these things.
“It is really is a pity that it has degenerated to this point. But the fact of the matter is that no serious-minded persons will take them seriously when they talk like this”.
On the APC claim that the PDP and the Federal Government were trying to garner cheap political profit from the calamity that befell some young Nigerians with the employment and compensations to the families of the affected victims of the NIS employment tragedy, Mr. Fani-Kayode said “It is not the PDP that feeds off the blood of other individuals; it is not the PDP that is a party of ritualists and cultists; it is not the PDP that encourages and supports terrorist organisations that have slaughtered about 35,000 people over the last three years.
“It was the APC that did that when Lai Mohammed said that it was unconstitutional and unjust for the Federal Government to proscribe Boko Haram. We do not feed off calamity; they are the ones that do that and they consistently do that and they will continue to do that and that is why we are saying they are not fit to take power in this country.
“Mr. President’s gesture concerning the victims of the calamity that took place last year when all those young people were killed was a noble gesture and was simply an acknowledgment of the fact that these people died under very, very sad circumstances.
“It was simply an attempt to alleviate the suffering and pain of the families of those that were killed and no right-thinking person will read any other meaning to that.
“It was a reflection of the compassion and the inherent goodness that reside in Mr. President’s heart and I think every patriotic and right-thinking Nigerian should commend him for that and not talk about feeding off people’s calamity. We are not cultists in the PDP. It is the APC that is filled with cultists and ritualists”, he said.