Neo Africana Centre, a Nigerian based public policy centre have asked Peoples Democratic Party, PDP to apologize to the presidential candidate of Labour Party, Peter Obi for disseminating information that they are negotiating with Peter Obi to withdraw from the presidential race for their own candidate.
In the statement issued by the public policy centre, it confronted PDP for its disinformation tactics and stated: “But to insinuate that a frontline presidential candidate like Peter Obi is considering withdrawing from the race is the height of absurdity. It is an assault on the psyche of Obi’s teeming supporters. Such cheap rumours can only appeal to the shallow imagination of its purveyors.”
The statement reads: “As a body interested in issues of democracy, public policy and good governance, we find such an unfounded rumor distracting and mischievous. It aims at diverting attention from the germane issues that should form the fulcrum of the campaigns and dwells instead on inanities and rumour-mongering. This is an act of desperation which should be shunned by well meaning Nigerians.
“We would have indulged the fancies and fantasies of the desperate campaigners if they had chosen to use in vain the names of the presidential candidates that cannot be taken too seriously in the race.
“But to insinuate that a frontline presidential candidate like Peter Obi is considering withdrawing from the race is the height of absurdity. It is an assault on the psyche of Obi’s teeming supporters. Such cheap rumours can only appeal to the shallow imagination of its purveyors.
“May we alert Nigerians to the fact that the campaigns have entered a crucial endgame. At a time like this, desperadoes and buccaneers are bound to foul the atmosphere. This is already being seen in the dirty, drag-out fight between the presidential campaign councils of the All Progressives Congress and the Peoples Democratic Party.”
“The unfounded rumours bordering on mergers and withdrawals could be another layer of this act of desperation. Nigerians should be vigilant lest unpatriotic elements drag them into the pit of hell.
According to Punch Newspaper, the “Director of Public Affairs, Jenkins Udu, said while the Centre has always sneered at such insinuations, it was deeply alarmed when Mr Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, was touted as one of those considering withdrawing from the race for Atiku Abubakar of the PDP.
According to the Centre, such an unholy rumour is viewed with utmost disgust. It called on Nigerians to shun desperate politicians who want to ride on the back of falsehood to score a cheap political point.
It also said that it is convinced that nation-wreckers are trying to hide under the veneer of politics to unleash anarchy and confusion on the system. To this end, the body wants the electorate to be vigilant and shun desperate campaigners and their antics.
The Centre wondered why anybody who wants genuine change in the country will sidestep issues of national importance and dwell instead on rumors and falsehood.”
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