Why PDP NWC blamed campaign team for Jonathan’s defeat … says hate statements cost party votes in the North
The
National Working Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party has said the hate
campaign against Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress by the
President Goodluck Jonathan campaign team played a huge part in PDP’s woeful
outing at the last general elections.
It
also accused the team of shutting out its members from Jonathan’s
electioneering after receiving about N500m out of the N7bn generated from the
sale of forms to the aspirants.
The
National Publicity Secretary of the party, Olisa Metuh, told
journalists at a news conference in Abuja on Monday, that apart from the N500m,
the Jerry Gana -led fund raising campaign committee generated about N21bn which
it spent without involving the NWC members.
He
said that the belief by the Jonathan campaign team that it could
denigrate a respected statesman like Buhari, who is reverred in the
North, instead of dwelling on issues, cost the party a lot of votes in that
part of the country.
Metuh
stated that the calls for the sack of the NWC members by those he
claimed were responsible for PDP’s poor performance at the polls, were immoral
and stood logic on its head.
He
explained that a greater chunk of the N7bn generated from the sale
of nomination and expression of interest forms was used to sponsor
the party’s candidates at nearly all levels.
The
PDP spokesman said, “We (NWC members) did not lead the party to failure. We
were not involved in the campaigns and our advice was ignored. If we had
handled the campaign, Mr. President would have won the election. We cannot be
held responsible when our advice was ignored.
“I
can tell you from my own records that we generated billions. I think we
generated more than N7bn or N8bn or N9bn. We generated more than N7bn; we
generated a lot of money.
“The
first initial donation we made was half a billion to the presidential campaign
funds even though we were not involved in raising funds for the presidential
campaign.
“They
generated campaign funds up to N21bn. The party was not involved in it and the
party cannot account for it because we were not involved in the disbursement of
that money. It was a Jerry Gana-led committee that handled it and nobody can
question us for that.
“There
is no governorship candidate that received less than N100m from this NWC . The
House of Assembly candidates across the country got money from us too. The
amount such people got depended on their states.
“These
monies were given to some ministers and some people to distribute to the
states. In some states, it was the campaign coordinators that we gave
and in others, we gave to the governors or directly to
the candidates of the party.
“For
those of us in the North where the type of campaign that we generated made it
impossible for our leaders in the North to garner support for our
candidate(Jonathan) because of the hate campaign that was generated we are not
answerable for it.
“We
cannot be held accountable for issues that were generated that worked against
our candidate in the North. This is clear; all Nigerians knew what happened.”
Among
those that strongly attacked Buhari during the campaign were the First
Lady, Patience Jonathan, and the Ekiti State Governor,
Ayo Fayose.
Responding
to allegations that members of the NWC received N30m each, the PDP
spokesman said, “We state clearly that we have not been given any money.
Rather, this NWC generated billions of naira from the sale of forms from where
we funded our candidates for governorship and state assembly elections in all
the states of the federation. This is in addition to funds released to key
leaders, including NWC and BoT members to prosecute the campaigns in their
various areas.
“The
NWC is willing and ready to make this account public in line with the Freedom
of Information Act.”
Metuh
also explained that several attempts had been made by some “divisive elements
to portray the NWC in a bad light following the party’s defeat at the polls.
He
recalled that in the attempt to discredit the NWC, the “divisive elements”
pushed out a series of misleading information to the public that
the party leadership mismanaged the presidential campaign funds and
hence the PDP poor performance.
The
PDP spokesman added, “When this wicked and baseless allegation was debunked by
the NWC which publicly clarified that it was not involved in the handling of
the campaign and its funding, and that such were exclusively managed by the
Presidential Campaign Organisation appointed by the President, these divisive
elements, in their desperation, came up with another allegation that the PDP
leadership embezzled funds belonging to the party.
“Even
after the NWC also debunked this despicable allegation showing that the party’s
funds were judiciously appropriated for our state election campaigns, this
group resorted to labelling the NWC with attempts to instigate President
Jonathan, the PDP governors and other well-meaning members of our party against
the national leadership.”
He
also said that the “divisive elements” embarked on sponsored publications
accusing the NWC members of sharing money generated from the sale
of forms to aspirants.
Metuh
stressed that the NWC members had remained very transparent in all their
dealings since coming into office.
When
contacted, the Political Adviser to the President,
Rufai Alkali, said “I don’t have details of the said
briefing” by Metuh.
Attempts
to reach the spokesman for the Jonathan campaign organisation, Femi
Fani-Kayode, were unsuccessful as calls to his mobile phone at 7:04pm indicated
that it was switched off.
Efforts
to reach Gana were also futile as of the time of filing this report.
Calls
to his mobile telephone number indicated that it was switched off. The first
call was at 8: 35pm, the second was at 8: 38pm and the third was at 8:54pm.
Why PDP NWC blamed campaign team for Jonathan’s defeat … says hate statements cost party votes in the North
Reviewed by Unknown
on
Tuesday, May 05, 2015
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