One of Nigeria’s leading opposition parties, the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), has strongly criticized the ruling Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) for calling it a “violent party”.
DailyPost on Friday sought the response of the National Publicity Secretary, Rotimi Fashakin on the comment. Fashakin in the exclusive interview, blasted his PDP counterpart, Olisa Metuh, describing him as “a man drunk with the power and grandeur attached to his office.”
Apparently acting on the reactions the story attracted on DailyPost when we published on Saturday, the CPC’s spokesman released a full statement yesterday. Below is a full text.
Press statement: PDP: A by-word in dishonorable violence! – by CPC The Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) noted the disparaging commentary of Chief Olisa Metuh, the National Publicity Secretary of People’s Democratic Party (PDP) wherein he characterized the CPC as a Party that “believes in violence and religious Politics.” As a Party, we have come to understand the PDP, as a Party, being peopled by egregiously violent ones, which earned it the sobriquet: ‘nest of killers.’ We know that the image makers of the PDP have penchant for conjectures, insinuations and unsupportable assertions. We, in the CPC, would prefer to confront this latest impudence by the PDP image launderer with verifiable facts.
Fact one- On 29th November, 1999, a PDP-led Federal Government- less than one year in office- ordered the violent invasion of ODI, a predominantly Ijaw community in Bayelsa state. It is note-worthy to state that this community was not in any secessionist plot against the Nigerian state. After the dust of the invasion cleared, the Human rights Watch concluded that “the soldiers must certainly have killed tens of unarmed civilians and that figures of several hundred dead are entirely plausible.”
Fact two- The same PDP-led administration, under the leadership of the Progenitor of the PDP, between October 22 and 24, 2001, ensured that some communities in Benue state were violently and crudely invaded, which led to the deaths of no fewer than 300 people. The affected communities were Zaki-Biam, Tse Adoor, Gbeji, Vaase, Anyiin, Iorjaa, Jootar, Sankera and Kyado. Though the Federal Government agreed to a N41 Billion compensation for this act of unmitigated violence, we believe that the indiscretion that led to this extra-judicial killings could have been avoided.
Fact Three- In the eight-year rule of the same regime (1999-2007), the Nigerian polity virtually became a Sanguinary with the unresolved wicked assassinations that characterized everyday living. More bewildering was the fact that a serving Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Late Chief Ajibola Ige, was murdered in his home – in the full glare of his security details- with the origin of the murderous violence yet to be unraveled!
Fact Four- In October 2009, a chieftain of PDP, Chief Bode George, was convicted by a Court of competent jurisdiction for 63-count charge bordering on financial violence on the Nigerian state and sentenced to two-year jail term. After his prison sentence, the PDP Apparatchiks, in a bizarre show of ethical violence on the Nigerian people, rolled out the drums and trumpets to welcome him back home. It is on record that, rather than putting this man through a structured party discipline for his misdemeanor, the PDP has continued to throw him up as its champion in obscenity and indecency!
Fact five- On 19th February, 2011, Chief Olisa Metuh, as National Vice-Chairman (South-East) of the PDP, invaded British Nigerian Academy, Prince and Princess Estate, Abuja (the former school of his son, Derrick) and assaulted the Vice Principal, Mr Kola Pele, a 67-year old man, for seizing a phone that Derrick had, against school rules, given to other students to use. A Gestapo-style invasion of the school by Chief Metuh saw him holding Mr Pele by the throat for the effrontery in seizing his son’s phone. The PDP, being a shelter for violently unstable minds, went on to appoint Chief Metuh as its National Publicity Secretary!
Fact Six – Aside the violent crater the PDP dug to the nation’s resources in prosecuting its 2011 presidential electioneering campaigns, there were also tales of tears and blood. From Kaduna to Port-Harcourt (where gates were shut against people’s will and 25 people were killed), the campaigns were trailed with violent tales all over.
Fact Seven- In the history of the Nigerian nation, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) had always maintained its apolitical status. In the run to the 2011 Presidential election, Pastor Ayodele Joseph Oritsejafor, the President of CAN, presented to the Nigerian Christians the PDP candidate, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, as the ‘anointed of the LORD’ in a manner that offended the non-partisanship of the religious body. The subsequent call for the arrest of the CPC candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari (GMB), by Pastor Oritsejafor for unsubstantiated allegations of sponsoring the post-election violence in the North, further lends credence to the fact that, through the instrumentality of PDP’s coercive politics, CAN (under Pastor Oritsejafor) is the religious arm of the PDP! Would that explain why Mr.President attended a ceremony (on Saturday, 10th November, 2012) where Pastor Oritsejafor was presented with several-Billion-naira worth air plane?
The CPC, as a Party, under the leadership of unquestionably disciplined Nigerians, has never been involved in acts capable of injuring the fragility of the social-political equilibrium in Nigeria. Our National Leader, GMB, was rigged out of national elections three times and in these times, he ventilated his aversion to the anomalies in the Law Courts! The PDP leadership, having mismanaged Nigerians’ expectations for good governance in the last 13 years, now feels comfortable throwing tantrums in very despicable manner. We are very certain that the Nigerian people, being the best judges, are capable of seeing through all the carefully woven obfuscation. On our part, we remain unfazed and would continue to pursue the agenda of peace and ethno-religious harmony of the Nigerian people. God bless Nigeria.
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