TheCable

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) says the comment by Lai Mohammed, minister of information, that the All Progressives Congress (APC) currently has a “one chance” government in Kwara state shows that the ruling party thrives on “lies”.

Mohammed, while speaking on Saturday at the party’s secretariat in the state, said the ruling party entered “one chance” by supporting Abdulrazaq Abdulrahman as governor of Kwara in 2019.

There has been controversy in the state chapter of the APC over campaign funding for the 2019 elections, with Mohammed claiming that he single-handedly provided the funds used during the election — Kwara lawmakers have denied the minister’s claim.

Reacting to the minister’s comments in a statement on Tuesday, the PDP said Mohammed’s position has exposed APC’s “deceptions”.

“The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) says the confession by the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, that the All Progressives Congress (APC) produced a “one chance” government further confirms its stand that the APC thrives on lies, deception, stealing and acts of political banditry,” the statement issued by Kola Ologbondiyan, PDP spokesman, reads.

“The PDP holds that Lai Mohammed’s declaration that the Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq-led APC government of Kwara state is treacherous and false-hearted and akin to “one chance” is an appellation that covers the APC administration at the national and state levels across the country.

“Nigerians all know that “one chance’ is a term referring to a form of robbery in which assailants lure unsuspecting victims into their vehicle, pretending to be heading to a particular destination, only to rob and afterwards kill or abandon their victim to fate.

“The declaration by Lai Mohammed therefore aptly fits, as the APC, at all levels, came into power through lies, false promises, deceptions and propaganda only to engage in reckless treasury looting, electoral malpractices, violation of the rights of Nigerians and reducing of our once thriving nation to world’s poverty capital.

“The PDP however invites Nigerians to note the declaration of members of the Kwara state House of Assembly who described Lai Mohammed as “a liar, who lies everyday”. This declaration by members of the Kwara House of Assembly directly points to how the APC used the instruments of lies, false promises, deception and propaganda to gain access to power in 2015.

“It is also descriptive of how the APC administration has continued to use the same instruments of lies, falsehood and deceit as a policy direction in their stranglehold on our nation.”

The PDP also urged Mohammed to “come clean on how, in his own confession, he ‘single-handedly’ raised the huge sum of money, which he claimed he used to finance elections in Kwara state”.

“This is particularly as the minister failed to give the details of the friends, politicians and families whom he claimed help him in ‘single-handedly’ raising the said huge funds for his party,” Ologbondiyan added.