Lai Mohammed ‘lai-ed’ on Daura, says PDP

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) says Lai Mohammed, national publicity secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), “told a lai” by insisting that Lawan Daura, director-general of the Department of States Service (DSS), is not  a member of the ruling party.

In a statement released on Saturday, Olisa Metuh, the PDP spokesman, described APC as “a party of shameless and desperate liars”, saying that the spate of lies churned out by the APC and its spokesperson in the desperation to suppress the truth is not only reprehensible but also symptomatic of lack of character.

“When the matter first came up, the APC spokesman hurriedly went on air on RayPower radio wherein he stated categorically to the nation that he never knew or met ‘the man’, and that ‘the man’ has never had any contact or dealing whatsoever with the APC as a party before his appointment as DSS director general,” he said.

“When we came up with the newspaper advertorial sponsored by the APC wherein it announced Alhaji Daura as a member of its campaign intelligence committee, a very important position vested on him by virtue of his membership of the party, as well as pictures of him with other members of the committee, Lai Mohammed started singing a new tone, insulted PDP leaders as hallucinating out of poverty and asked PDP to produce Daura’s membership card and evidence of registration.

“We ask, is APC demanding that the PDP invade Daura’s house to get his personal card? Or that we should go to Daura to get the APC ward register? How on earth does the APC spokesperson want us to go and ask a man in charge of arresting and detaining people who hold views contrary to those of his party and government to give us his party membership card? How on earth can the PDP request and get the APC membership register in Daura’s ward? Who do Lai Mohammed and the APC think they are fooling? Nigerians?”

The PDP noted that “in his effort to defend his party, the APC spokesman either intentionally lied or exhibited crass ignorance by trying to equate the DSS with the National Orientation Agency (NOA), the Police Service Commission (PCC), or the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) where a Democrat, Mr Leon Panetta was named by President Obama as head”.

“Perhaps Mr Lai Mohammed needs to constantly update and crosscheck his facts. We wish to inform him and the APC that there is a great difference between the CIA and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) after which the Nigerian DSS was fashioned,” the party said.

“Whereas the US FBI and the Nigerian DSS are vested with the statutory tasks of providing domestic intelligence, security service and criminal investigations among others for the state and can be equated with the British M15 and Russian FSB, all of which have their headships insulated from politics, the CIA on the other hand is vested with collecting of intelligence overseas, the same role as Nigeria’s National Intelligence Agency (NIA).

“Furthermore, the NOA and PCC are agencies that have no powers to investigate, arrest or detain, neither can they be used to harass, hound or intimidate. Also, we wish to remind Lai Mohammed that Mr. Mike Omeri, in writing, declined the appointment into the PDP campaign committee because of his position as Director General of the NOA. We note therefore that in drawing his comparisons, Mr. Mohammed either exhibited high level ignorance or acted ostensibly to deceive Nigerians yet again.

“Severally in the past, we have exposed Lai Mohammed in terms of lies but instead of retracing his steps, he keeps on moving from one ‘lai’ to the other. Only in May this year, Lai Mohammed nearly derailed the transition programme when he issued a false statement alleging that the APC team was being frustrated, just for the head of the APC’s Transition Committee, Ahmed Joda to announce that there was nothing of such.

“Nigerians have not forgotten how Lai Mohammed had in June 2014 issued a statement wherein he alleged that a plane carrying Kano state Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso to attend an APC rally in Ekiti was denied landing permission in Akure, only for Kwankwaso’s director of press affairs, Baba Dantiye to announce that his boss was at another event in Kano and had no plans to travel to Ekiti state.

“The APC spokesman should know that being a spokesperson of a political party does not mean he should be dishing out lies. He should shed his unnecessary arrogance and understand that the APC did not win the presidential election on account of his lies and deceit. In fact, this constant falsehood has become a huge embarrassment and source of worry for responsible and respectable persons in the APC.

“Quite often, he boasts of arranging a course for the opposition. We ask, is he arranging a course in lies? For the umpteenth time, let us inform him and the APC that the PDP does not need their course on the spreading of hatred and strife with lies, propaganda and deceit. Our form of opposition is focused only on constructive criticisms while presenting credible alternatives to the policies and programmes of the present administration.

“Our worry however is that the APC spokesperson has so negatively influenced some hundreds of young people who now engage in abuses as a model for effective communication and this is not healthy for the polity. We urge Nigerians to purge themselves of this poisonous mode of communication so that we can have credible and decorous political discourse in this country.”

The PDP insisted that in appointing its member to head the DSS, a very sensitive security agency vested with numerous powers, the APC had annexed the service as a tool to suppress the opposition and other Nigerians who hold views contrary to that of the government, thus preparing the ground for dictatorship and a reign of terror on the people.

“No wonder we are now witnessing invasions of houses of PDP members as well as harassments, arrests and detentions of electoral officers and tribunal members in Akwa-Ibom, Rivers and other PDP state where the APC is desperate to upturn our electoral victory at all cost and by any means.”

PDP maintained that no amount of harassment and threats or conniving with people, whether disgruntled PDP members or staff, could intimidate, blackmail or distract it from discharging its duty to Nigerians, of providing constructive and credible opposition to the policies and programmes of the present administration.