The All Progressives Congress (APC) on Tuesday replied the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) over allegations from the latter that the APC was planning a sponsored survey in favour of its presidential candidate, Muhammadu Buhari, describing the PDP as a victim of self-inflicted paranoia.
The APC also said the PDP’s statement showed a panic reaction to a yet to be conducted opinion poll.
In a statement issued in Abuja by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said the PDP has only succeeded in committing an unforced error by its frenzied reaction, which is understandable considering the fact that the party is being pounded from all sides by both seen and unseen forces.
“The PDP is behaving like a punch-drunk boxer, who started flailing at everything and everyone but his opponent, having being disoriented by a staccato of body blows,” Mohammed said.
Had it not been so, a party that is urging a focus on serious campaign issues would not have picked on the imaginary outcome of a public opinion poll.”
He said the PDP is not in a position to advise anyone on the conduct of opinion polls, when all it has engaged in over the years have been doctored and incestuous opinion polls.
“It is said that he who must come to equity must come with clean hands. It is apparent that this dictum is lost on the petrified PDP,” Mohammed added.
“This is a party that has been celebrating the outcome of the regular polls by the NOI Polls, when it is glaring that the brain behind this poll is a key Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“NOI stands for the initials of this Minister, and discerning Nigerians are aware of this. Because the NOI polls have been doctored to achieve a pre-determined end, the PDP made itself to believe it was doing well all along, when indeed it was leading Nigeria to a dark alley of economic and infrastructural collapse, massive unemployment as well as pervasive and unprecedented insecurity.”
He pointed out that now that the die is cast and even the most ardent supporters of the PDP have realised that the game is up and are jumping off its sinking ship, the party has come to realize its folly.
“How then can such a party advise another party on how to conduct a public opinion poll?” He quizzed.
“Even without any poll, Nigerians have come to realize that the Presidential Candidate of the APC, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, stands head and shoulders above his PDP counterpart not only physically but in terms of integrity, capability, vision, achievements and antecedents. Since these are the issues that will count during the forthcoming polls, the PDP can as well start learning how to be in opposition.”
He lambasted the PDP for casting aspersion on the integrity of the media by saying the APC is intensifying effort to compromise some section of the media.
“The PDP has consistently shown nothing but disdain for the media, which was at the forefront of the fight for the democracy that the do-nothing folks at the PDP are now enjoying, undeservedly,” he said.
“If the media was so easy to compromise, it would have been compromised a long time ago and perhaps Nigeria would not have benefited from its selfless battle against military dictatorship. This lesson is lost on the trifling PDP, hence it has continued to hold the media in disdain, the latest instance of which is the unnecessary accusation of its being compromised.
“Our honest advice to those who did nothing when the epic battle to install this democracy was going on, but are now pretending to be its custodians, is that they should not crash it on the altar of careless, inciting and offensive statements.”
PDP had on Monday counselled APC and its presidential candidate to focus on real campaign and try to win followers genuinely instead of applying cheap diversionary tactics.
PDP’s National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, had charged APC to make its so-called ‘change agenda’ based on issues and not on change of dressing and religious gathering.
Metuh had said: “This election is not about political window-dressing and dramatising. What will count is record of performance and antecedents, which President Jonathan stands taller than General Buhari.
“It is therefore not surprising that the APC and its presidential candidate will resort to organising a kangaroo opinion rating in a failed attempt to cover up their inadequacies and manipulate public perception in their favour.
“This APC phantom poll has been designed in such a way to make the Nigerian public believe that 75 percent of the voting population is in support of General Buhari ahead the February 14 Presidential election.”
He had said the party’s findings reveal that APC leaders are already intensifying effort to compromise some section of the media so as to ensure that the poll packaged by its foreign consultants is widely publicized.
“Part of the strategy is a disguised mobile phone balloting application being circulated by the APC, whereby a curious click elicits a thank-you message from them and automatically register the unsuspecting phone user as having voted in support of General Buhari,” Metuh had said.
“We are indeed shocked at the level the APC and its presidential candidate have sunk in their desperation for power.
“We hereby urge Nigerians, particularly the media to be wary of this plot to deceive the public and truncate our democratic process.”
He said PDP’s final advice to the APC is that they should focus on real campaign and stop playing to the gallery.
“Lies, no matter how much embellished can never take the place of truth and nothing built on falsehood stands. This election is not about fake figures and falsehood. It is about the choice of the citizens,” Metuh had added.
“Nigerians have since made up their minds to continue identifying with their performing President and no amount of propaganda and misrepresentation by the APC can change this.”