The freelance journalist, Mrs Rose Graham is an APC apologist

The Financial Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party in Lagos State, Mr. Taiwo Kuye,

tells BAYO AKINLOYE that the allegation that the party rented a crowd to protest against the All Progressives Congress presidential candidate, Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, is not true

Did the Peoples Democratic Party rent a crowd to protest against the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, at Chatham House in London?

How could the largest party in Africa rent a crowd to protest a personality like Muhammadu Buhari? Who doesn’t know him as a former despot? Buhari is well known in London as someone who once truncated a democratic process in Nigeria. The Peoples Democratic Party did not need to rent a crowd to protest against the opposition party’s presidential candidate. People all over the world know about the transformational leadership of the PDP presidential candidate, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. His works speak for him. The protesters against Buhari know a pretender had come into their midst.

But a journalist and London resident, Rose Graham, alleged that the crowd protesting against the APC was likely paid to do so?

The people protesting against Buhari were London residents. They knew very well what they were doing. Our party, the PDP, does not pay people to attend rally or pay people to protest against our opponents. We are not like the opposition, the All Progressives Congress, that will take a crowd from Osun to Sokoto; that will rent a crowd in Lagos and take to Ekiti. We don’t rent crowds. That is what the APC does all the time; they want to tell the people that they have a large following. It’s a lie –and lying has always been their propaganda. PDP doesn’t do that. We are a strong party with a strong base nationwide. Our presence is felt anywhere and everywhere. We are a stable party –the most stable party in the country. Look at the so-called leading opposition party, how stable is it?

What about Graham’s claim that the PDP was trying to buy her over to campaign for President Goodluck Jonathan?

Who will offer her money to campaign for the President? She is obviously a Buhari and APC apologist. What she said was not true. Everyone knows what havoc Buhari wreaked on this country as a dictatorial former head of state. The PDP did not need to offer anyone money to protest against someone who overthrew a democratically elected government. In the APC, there are plenty of scavengers who are moving from London to America to the Emirates looking for banks to grant them loan to execute their presidential election ambition. They left the shore of Nigeria seeking for money to expend during the election. Even their candidate, I learnt, had to be flown to London and California for medical attention. These are scavengers moving around the globe –they’re unsteady. All they do is lie against the PDP and the President.

Are you saying that your party doesn’t hire crowd for its rallies or sponsor a crowd to protest against its opponents?

Every crowd you see at a PDP gathering is never a hired throng. The people who come out to participate in our rallies are those who are in love with the ruling party. In all of our gatherings these ones come out not because of the handouts they will get but because of their genuine love for the PDP. They know and understand that the PDP is a performer. People troop out in their thousands to attend our programmes. We don’t hire crowds. All the people who support us are our bona fide members. It is never the practice of the PDP to hire a crowd. For what? Any crowd you see are people who are committed to the ideals of the party. This is not APC. Renting crowds is what they do the best. They can ferry people from Lagos to Sokoto to campaign. In the Lagos State governorship race, Jimi Agbaje is a governor-in-waiting. There’s no chance this time around for the APC to win the governorship election in Lagos. If an independent opinion poll is conducted today, you will find out that the PDP is fully on ground in all the 20 Local Government Areas. And if you look at the forthcoming presidential election, it’s going to be a walk-over for Mr. President. I have that conviction.