“APC Is A Party Of Shameless And Desperate Liars” - PDP

“APC Is A Party Of Shameless And Desperate Liars” - PDP

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has described the ruling All
Progressives Congress (APC), as a party of shameless and desperate
liars.

The party berated the APC for sticking to its lies and empty denials
despite overwhelming evidences that the new Director General of the
Department of State Services (DSS), Alhaji Lawal Daura is an APC member.

PDP National Publicity Secretary Chief Olisa Metuh in a statement on
Saturday said the spate of lies chunked out by the APC and its
spokesperson, Alhaji Lai Mohammed in the desperation to suppress the
truth is not only reprehensible but also symptomatic of lack of
character.

“When the matter first came up, the APC spokesman hurriedly went on air
on RayPower radio wherein he stated categorically to the nation that he
never knew or met “the man”, and that “the man” has never had any
contact or dealing whatsoever with the APC as a party before his
appointment as DSS Director General.

“When we came up with the newspaper advertorial sponsored by the APC
wherein it announced Alhaji Daura as a member of its campaign
Intelligence Committee, a very important position vested on him by
virtue of his membership of the party, as well as pictures of him with
other members of the committee, Lai Mohammed started singing a new tone,
insulted PDP leaders as hallucinating out of poverty and asked PDP to
produce Daura’s membership card and evidence of registration.

  “We ask, is APC demanding that the PDP invade Daura’s house to get his
personal card? Or that we should go to Daura to get the APC ward
register?  How on earth does the APC spokesperson want us to go and ask
a man in charge of arresting and detaining people who hold views
contrary to those of his party and government to give us his party
membership card? How on earth can the PDP request and get the APC
membership register in Daura’s ward? Who do Lai Mohammed and the APC
think they are fooling?  Nigerians?” the PDP queried.

The PDP noted that in his lame effort to defend his party, the APC
spokesman either intentionally lied or exhibited crass ignorance by
trying to equate the DSS with the National Orientation Agency (NOA), the
Police Service Commission (PCC), or the United States Central
Intelligence Agency (CIA) where a Democrat, Mr. Leon Panetta was named
by President Obama as head.

“Perhaps Mr. Lai Mohammed needs to constantly update and crosscheck his
facts. We wish to inform him and the APC that there is a great
difference between the CIA and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation
(FBI) after which the Nigerian DSS was fashioned.

“Whereas the US FBI and the Nigerian DSS are vested with the statutory
tasks of providing domestic intelligence, security service and criminal
investigations among others for the state and can be equated with the
British M15 and Russian FSB, all of which have their headships insulated
from politics, the CIA on the other hand is vested with collecting of
intelligence overseas, the same role as Nigeria’s National Intelligence
Agency (NIA).

“Furthermore, the NOA and PCC are agencies that have no powers to
investigate, arrest or detain, neither can they be used to harass, hound
or intimidate. Also, we wish to remind Lai Mohammed that Mr. Mike Omeri,
in writing, declined the appointment into the PDP campaign committee
because of his position as Director General of the NOA. We note
therefore that in drawing his comparisons, Mr. Mohammed either exhibited
high level ignorance or acted ostensibly to deceive Nigerians yet again.

“Severally in the past, we have exposed Lai Mohammed in terms of lies
but instead of retracing his steps, he keeps on moving from one ‘lai’ to
the other. Only in May this year, Lai Mohammed nearly derailed the
transition programme when he issued a false statement alleging that the
APC team was being frustrated, just for the head of the APC’s Transition
Committee, Alhaji Ahmed Joda to announce that there was nothing of such.

“Nigerians have not forgotten how Lai Mohammed had in June 2014 issued a
statement wherein he alleged that a plane carrying Kano state Governor
Rabiu Kwankwaso to attend an APC rally in Ekiti was denied landing
permission in Akure, only for Kwankwaso’s Director of Press Affairs,
Baba Dantiye to announce that his boss was at another event in Kano and
had no plans to travel to Ekiti state.

“The APC spokesman should know that being a spokesperson of a political
party does not mean he should be dishing out lies. He should shed his
unnecessary arrogance and understand that the APC did not win the
Presidential election on account of his lies and deceit. In fact, this
constant falsehood has become a huge embarrassment and source of worry
for responsible and respectable persons in the APC.

“Quite often, he boasts of arranging a course for the opposition. We
ask, is he arranging a course in lies? For the umpteenth time, let us
inform him and the APC that the PDP does not need their course on the
spreading of hatred and strife with lies, propaganda and deceit. Our
form of opposition is focused only on constructive criticisms while
presenting credible alternatives to the policies and programmes of the
present administration.

“Our worry however is that the APC spokesperson has so negatively
influenced some hundreds of young people who now engage in abuses as a
model for effective communication and this is not healthy for the
polity. We urge Nigerians to purge themselves of this poisonous mode of
communication so that we can have credible and decorous political
discourse in this country” the party said.

The PDP insisted that in appointing its member to head the DSS, a very
sensitive security agency vested with numerous powers, the APC has
annexed the Service as a tool to suppress the opposition and other
Nigerians who hold views contrary to that of government, thus preparing
the ground for dictatorship and a reign of terror on the people.

“No wonder we are now witnessing invasions of houses of PDP members as
well as harassments, arrests and detentions of electoral officers and
tribunal members in Akwa-Ibom, Rivers and other PDP state where the APC
is desperate to upturn our electoral victory at all cost and by any
means”, it stated.

The party however restated that no amount of harassment and threats or
conniving with people, whether disgruntled PDP members or staff, can
intimidate, blackmail or distract the PDP from discharging its duty to
Nigerians, of providing constructive and credible opposition to the
policies and programmes of the present administration.