PRESS STATEMENT BY PDP
The leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has invited you to
this press conference to address a very grievous development in our
polity.
You will recall that over time, we have never wavered on our emphasis on
issue-driven campaign based on the truth and verifiable facts. This
position has guided our campaigns at different levels as we meet the
electorate to showcase our manifesto, numerous achievements and roadmap
for a more prosperous future.
However, the same cannot be said of the opposition. Most Nigerians would
have today noted a worrisome trend in the camp of the opposition, which
is not only inimical to the stability of our nation but also to the
growth and sustenance of our democracy.
Since its formation about two years ago, the All Progressives Congress
(APC) has introduced and sustained an unfortunate political streak
sustained majorly by lies, character assassination, false alarm, wild
allegations, and lately visual simulation all in the desperation to
deceive and misdirect the judgment of the electorate.
We have with us an opposition party, which has been deploying all manner
of schemes to derail and compromise the electoral process. Today, if
the APC is not instigating violence or threating democracy and our very
existence as a nation, the party is busy procuring criminal hi-tech to
hack into INEC’s data-base or clone the Permanent Voters Card (PVC). The
next day, the same party would connive with some unscrupulous electoral
officers to deny non-indigenes in some select states their PVCs while
busy making bogus promises to the electorates.
We have therefore called you here to list some of these fabrications and
empty promises of the APC in the last four months and through you convey
them to the Nigerian electorates and the international community so that
they will not be deceived.
For instance, the APC in one of its phantom promises said that it would
pay a stipend of N5, 000 each to 25 million poor Nigerians monthly.
This gives a total of N125 billion each month and N1.5 trillion every
year.
What is baffling is that the APC knows full well that this is not only
unrealistic but also impracticable in a nation with an estimated budget
of N4.69 trillion comprising recurrent and capital expenditures yet they
continue to dish it out to unsuspecting citizens in a clear bid to
mislead.
Also, the deceitful tendency of the APC came to light in its promise to
create 740, 000 direct jobs in each of the 36 states of the federation
and the FCT within one year while on the other hand promising to create
1 million jobs for Igbo youths also within the same period. We ask,
which do we believe?
The APC has also promised to provide free education, daily free meals
for millions of Nigerian school children, free tertiary education, free
health care and free houses to Nigerians. The opposition knows too well
that this is unrealistic yet they prefer to brandish falsehood.
The APC should explain to Nigerians how they would fulfill their
promises with the prevailing 40% drop in national income and dwindling
oil price in the international market. These promises are therefore
either bogus or part of their plot to subject the citizens to a harsh
tax regime ostensibly to finance Bourdilon Drive and other personal
interests, the real reason they desperately seek power.
We therefore challenge the APC to come forward and admit before
Nigerians that these promises are false and merely deceitful if not they
should be bold enough to tell Nigerians that they are planning to
skyrocket our personal income and company taxes if they ever get to
power.
Under the PDP led administration, company tax is a maximum of 30 percent
of the profit whereas personal income tax hovers from 1% for minimum
wage earners to a maximum of 19% for Nigerians earning up to N100
million.
Can Nigerians afford a tax regime of 45% company tax and 32% personal
income tax? Whilst we note the multiple tax regime in APC states like
Lagos state, we believe that Nigerians are not ready to bear the brunt
of APC’s harsh tax policy.
If on the other hand APC decides to deny the planned imposition of a
harsh tax regime, then they must accept they are guilty of fake campaign
promises and deceitful manifesto.
Indeed, the APC has constituted itself into a huge embarrassment to our
dear nation. It has remained a camp of dishonest lot whose statements
cannot be trusted having continually displayed its lack of integrity and
proclivity for falsehood. A party of one week, one lie
Nigerians are still shocked at the discovery of the latest international
fraud where the APC rehashed an old interview by its Presidential
candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari as a fresh one, all in a bid to
cover up a mismanaged international trip.
This is coming on the heels of another shocking discovery that the APC’s
claim that its Presidential candidate visited Chibok turned out to be a
hoax meant to deceive Nigerians, as he never did.
You may well recall that in June, 2014 the APC in its usual proclivity
for lies issued a statement alleging that a plane carrying Kano state
Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso purportedly to attend its rally in Ekiti was
denied landing permission in Akure, only for Kwankwaso’s Director of
Press Affairs, Baba Dantiye to announce that the governor was at another
event in Kano and had no plans to travel to Ekiti state.
Nigerians have not forgotten series of false alarms by the APC, the
latest being the allegations of government siege and claims of threats
to lives of its leaders which turned out to be totally false and only
cooked up by its propaganda machinery to heat up the polity.
Also, the APC had in early 2014 raised an alarm that federal lawmakers
were being induced with millions of dollars to defect to the PDP, only
for Nigerians to find out that it was false,
You may also recall the reprehensible attempt by the APC to deceive
Nigerians when it accused the Federal Government of deploying operatives
of the SSS to terrorize voters in Osun state when in actual fact, the
APC governor of Osun state also officially requested for their
deployment ahead of the August 9, 2014 governorship election.
Indeed that the APC is working to undermine the sanctity of the
electoral process is well known to all. When we first alerted the nation
that APC was conniving with some compromised staff of INEC to deny
non-indigenes in select states their Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs), the
opposition reacted ferociously accusing us of false alarm while
insulting our party leaders. However, we were vindicated when INEC on
their own, not only confirmed the crime in Lagos but also sacked the
officials involved.
In the same vein, when we raised an alarm last year that the APC had
procured technologies to compromise the electoral process by hacking
into INEC’s data base and cloning Permanent Voters Cards (PVC), the APC
also reacted vehemently and some interests accused us of crying wolf
only for us to be vindicated by shocking findings by the State Security
Services which exposed the culpability of APC.
Nigerians now know why the APC has been boasting that it will emerge
victorious in the elections with threats of violence if it loses. We
hereby restate our call for the prosecution of all individuals arrested
over the matter.
Gentlemen of the press, we ask, should the destiny of our dear nation be
entrusted to a party that has shown an unrepentant proclivity for deceit
and outright lies? Can our nation afford to have a government run by a
party of liars?
Indeed, it is important that we draw the attention of Nigerians and the
international community to these developments to enable them note the
emptiness in the basket of promises being brandished by the APC so as to
be guided wisely as they make the very important decisions on March 28
and April 11, 2015.
It is indeed obvious that the APC has no intentions of pursuing, let
alone fulfilling any of their bogus promises. It is either they are
merely taking the nation for a ride or seek to use the promises as a
pedestal to impose a cruel tax regime and exploit Nigerians. Any which
way, it is a campaign based on deceit.
Finally, we ask Nigerian to choose who to follow; the APC, a party that
has shown it is guilty of fake promises and lies or the PDP, a party
that has based its campaigns on the truth and integrity. We are sure
Nigerians have chosen to follow the PDP, the party that is willing to
accept its shortcomings and ready to incorporate well-meaning opinions,
suggestions and advise.
Signed:
Olisa Metuh
National Publicity Secretary