Jonathan’s spokesman: I didn’t drag PDP into Cambridge Analytica controversy

Ikechukwu Eze, spokesman of ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, has denied dragging the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) into the Cambridge Analytica controversy.

Cambridge Analytica is alleged to have attempted to influence the 2015 presidential election.

A whistle-blower had told a UK parliamentary committee of how the organisation allegedly hacked into President Muhammadu Buhari’s records and also distributed violent videos to intimidate the president’s supporters.

Eze had earlier granted an interview on the matter. In a statement on Thursday, he said “there is an element of mischief” in the story published as it did not reflect his comments.

“I write to clarify that there is an element of mischief in the story, with the reporter disingenuously seeking to drag the PDP into the report, and make the party look like an accomplice, in a case it was not even mentioned,” he said.

“The truth is that in my reaction to a question in a telephone chat on whether the former president knew about the alleged involvement of Cambridge Analytica in the 2015 elections, I had simply responded thus: ‘All the stories written about the subject so far had all clarified that Dr. Goodluck Jonathan was not aware of such attempt, if there were any.’

“Although I was correctly quoted, to the effect that “former President Jonathan was not aware of it”, I consider the attempt to link my response with an orchestrated PDP involvement in the allegation as simply preposterous.

“This is because the PDP was neither mentioned in the scandal nor came up in my chat with the reporter.”

He said the whistleblower who originated the allegation has always associated it to an unnamed Nigerian businessman “who was neither linked to the party nor to the Jonathan campaign”.

“It is therefore deceitful for any pundit to blame the allegation on the PDP or anybody close to the former president, even before investigations were concluded,” he said.