- Your antics failed, PDP replies
The All Progressives Congress (APC) Sunday said it was not compulsory for its candidate in the 2019 election to participate in the presidential debate organized by the Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria (BON).
The party also said it was an insult for its candidate, Buhari, to debate with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.
The National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Mallam Lanre Isa-Onilu who addressed a press conference maintained that president doesn’t have to give any reason at all for not attending that debate.
He said: “the debate is just one of the several platforms that are available for our candidate to engage with the public; we cannot exhaust all the platforms.
“So we pick the platforms that are most impactful and we are the ones in the position to determine, which platform we want to use.
Debate with who? That is an insult, that the president will come debate with who?’’.
He also condemned the visit of the PDP presidential candidate to the United States.
APC Presidential Campaign Council, Mr. Festus Keyamo, SAN, had described the visit as a non-event.
Keyamo said, “We were not surprised by his visit to the US. For us, this visit is really a non-event considering the issues involved in the forthcoming election. However, we have bad news for those who think this is a momentous event for Atiku Abubakar: the visit was nothing but a downright catastrophe because rather than dispel the fact of indictments hanging over his head.”
But in reaction to the statement from APC, the PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation (PPCO) said the party was only worried about the internationally acceptance that Atiku is enjoying.
The Director of Media and Publicity, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, in a statement said the antics of the APC by shielding Buhari from debate failed.
He said that APC spent billions of naira in propaganda to ensure that the trip did not work.
“President Buhari and the APC were so disturbed about Atiku Abubakar’s acceptance by the international community that they wasted billions of naira from the coffers of the NDDC to organise a failed protest in the US.
“When that failed, they attempted to use the Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, to threaten and level spurious allegations against Atiku Abubakar, which also came to naught, as the entire world saw through the fabrications.”
