APC’s attack on Jonathan must stop now - PDP

The Peoples Democratic Party said on Tuesday that it would no longer condone what it described as the deliberate, unwarranted and sustained vicious attacks on the person and office of President Goodluck Jonathan by the opposition, the All Progressives Congress.
PDP National Publicity, Chief Olisa Metuh, who stated this in a statement on behalf of the party, insisted that the opposition must end the attack.

If the opposition refuses to heed his call, Metuh said the PDP would no longer fold its hands while he said the desperate desire of the APC for power unchains undisciplined impulses and actions was posing a threat to the very survival of democracy and the nation.

He said his party had been watching carefully as members of APC, including its national officers, governors, presidential aspirants continued to castigate the president for no just cause.

He said, "The PDP has been watching carefully as the rank and file of the APC, the governors, party leaders, presidential hopefuls and even sidekicks  run amok, competing in a heavily subjective castigation of President Goodluck Jonathan with incendiary utterances, signposting its plans for the dastardly when it loses in next year's general elections.

"However, patriotism, the cardinal value of our great party, indeed, the price of our custodianship of the mandate of over 160 million Nigerians calls for vigilance, maturity and responsibility,  hence our restraints in the face of the naked lies and recklessness of the APC.

"We had thought that the silver hair of its top leaders would caution the thoughtless delinquency of its youngsters. Unfortunately, the recklessness of the old is in competition with the imprudence of the young. What a shame the APC has turned."

He called on the opposition to learn from its (PDP) political campaigns, which he said were issue-based just as he advised the APC on the need to maintain political decorum and primacy of national interest in the build-up to the forthcoming elections.

Metuh however regretted that APC had refused to shed its penchant for lies, deceit, propaganda, violence and blackmail as the center piece of their agenda and message to Nigerians.

While alleging that the aim of the APC was to set the stage for violence, but instill fear in Nigerians, discourage them from actively participating in the electoral process thereby giving room for them to perpetrate all manners of electoral malpractices, he said such ideas would not be bought by Nigerians.

Metuh also claimed that leaders of the APC had while contesting on different platforms in 2011, issued such threats and allegedly went ahead to precipitate an unprecedented electoral violence in which hundreds of innocent Nigerians lost their lives.

He said in spite of this, the election which they were denigrating, was adjudged by local and international observers as the most credible in our recent history.

He added in the  statement that the alleged warning last week by security experts that some opposition leaders might be planning to intensify mayhem against Nigerians to justify their only campaign point, which is insecurity, might not be unrelated to the increased spate of bombings following the declaration of President Jonathan to contest the 2015 presidential election.