The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has hit out at the Presidency for perpetuating what it calls ‘lies’ against it’s candidate, Atiku Abubakar.
The reprimand was contained in a statement put out by the Director of Media and Publicity of the Council, Mr Kola Ologbondiyan.
In it, he said that the Presidency had resorted to lies on seeing that Nigerians are on course to vote for Atiku in the next elections in 2019.
The statement reads in part: “is it not ludicrous that the Buhari Presidency has abandoned its statutory duties and turned itself into a lying, ‘monitoring spirit’ on Atiku Abubakar and his movements, yet it has not been able to produce any documentary evidence to substantiate its claims?
“President Buhari’s fixation on Atiku Abubakar, to the extent of sponsoring fabrications in a section of the media, only goes to show that he is intimidated by our candidate’s resume, his overwhelming popularity and policy direction, which have since amplified his (President Buhari’s) incompetence and lack of direction, as a result of which he is being rejected by the majority of Nigerians.
“Atiku Abubakar is a global figure and is not inhibited, in any way whatsoever, from travelling to any part of the world.
“However, he is not prepared to make the sky his office, unlike President Buhari, who unleashed a widely condemned taste for very expensive and wasteful gallivanting with our national fleet, while Nigerians wallow in abject poverty for neglect and abuse of resources
“In any case, the PDP refuses to lose sight of the fact that our campaign is on the rescue mission and that Nigerians are looking up to our candidate for direction.
“As such, we will not allow the rejected Buhari Presidency to distract us from our focus of repositioning and redirecting our nation to the path of a united, peaceful, secure and prosperous nation where are all citizens are happy and free.”
It added: “President Buhari should, by now, be providing answers for the over N11 trillion stolen under his watch, particularly in the petroleum sector where he sits as minister; the alleged diversion of funds meant for the purchase of weapons and welfare of our soldiers to finance his re-election campaign as well as the neglect and insensitivity that led to the escalation of killings and bloodletting in various parts of the country under his rule.
“President Buhari should provide answers for his incompetence and harsh economic policies that plunged our economy into recession, leading to high cost of living, loss of over 30 million jobs, acute poverty, hunger, the collapse of infrastructure in our country in the last three and half years.