PDP ‘fabricating lies’ against President Buhari
A Coalition of about 100 Civil Society Organizations in Nigeria has claimed that it has uncovered plots by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to win the 2019 elections using frivolous and fictitious allegations against the Muhammadu Buhari-led administration.
The group claimed a plot that has been hatched by the PDP to “manufacture” falsehood and distort facts in its campaign for the 2019 presidential poll.
It also said other elections will be affected using some key government agencies and parastatals under the supervision of President Buhari.
According to the coalition, under the aegis of Save Nigeria Network (SNN), part of the plot is to smear the administration with non-existing corruption allegations in some agencies under the direct supervision of the President, Vice President or his close allies.
Addressing newsmen Thursday on the development, Secretary General of SNN, Patience Daniel, said the plot was initially in the realm of speculations but there is now concrete evidence with the publication by a group that calls itself “Get Nigeria Working Again” of an infographic that attempted to malign the incumbent government.
It cited unresolved corruption in NNPC, NEMA, NHIS, PINE Fund, Bird Flu intervention, Abacha Loot and Security Vote among others.
She said the inclusion of these agencies and expenditures in the referenced publications was nothing but a calculated attempt to unleash terror on the President Buhari-led government.
According to him, the plot was in itself an insult to the sensibility of the voting population in that it seeks to play on their intelligence by exploiting the believability of printed matter.
The organization explained that those promoting these lies see Nigerians to swallow their lies hook, line and sinker based on the assumption that once it has been printed or published it would be considered the truth.
“Playing such prank on the people is the lowest form of fraud possible,” it said.
“We believe in the power of information to set the record straight, which is why we are urging Nigerians to be circumspect when processing claims being made by the PDP,” Daniel noted.
She pointed out that: “A detailed background of the party and the issues it is trying to exploit are of importance in this matter. Even though the PDP elements have created the impression that they are drawing attention to germane issues, their antecedents and involvement in the same issues create suspicion.”
Accordingly, she said it must be noted that most of the instances claimed by the PDP in alleging corruption under the present administration actually have their roots in the 16 years of the party’s misrule, destruction and looting the country.
She said they are now being made to appear as having occurred under the Buhari government and turned around to pass the buck simply because the present government took its time to duly ensure that investigation into what transpired in the various agencies were thoroughly concluded.
Daniel stressed that: “What these treasury looters have done is to use the agents they have planted in the named organizations to produce fictitious documents upon which they based their misleading claims.
She also said they manipulated dates so that crimes committed in the PDP years are now being presented as incidents that occurred under the present government. Unfortunately for them, the Secretary General said, Nigerians are aware that the issues raised by this group pre-date the Buhari presidency and were in reality transacted under the watch of PDP.
“Another level of the conspiracy is to activate the caucuses of the PDP in the National Assembly to conduct kangaroo probes of the said corrupt agencies and use the manipulated outcomes of such investigations to level impeachable offenses against President Buhari,” she explained.
Daniel said that the discussion among the team that activated the plot was that President Buhari would be distracted from his ongoing issue-based campaign once he is served impeachment notice.
The Coalition, she noted, therefore wished to lay these issues on the table and to put Nigerians and the world on notice that these people who have failed in every other endeavor have now decided that the only campaign tools they have left was to tarnish the image of well-meaning Nigerians that are managing the respective agencies and programmes to get at President Buhari.
The coalition drew that attention of Nigerians that the institutional damage being done to the affected organizations as they now have to make extra efforts at confidence-building among their various stakeholders.
Some of the intended damages included: The destruction of Nigeria’s image in the international community that does not do things right with the attendant consequence that investors’ confidence is dampened thereby denying the country of foreign direct investment, the potential to heating up the polity with a dud impeachment move against the President as this would further deepen the fault lines brought about by the PDP in its 16 years of misadventure and distortion of the political process by basing campaign on lies that undermine activities related to the election.
