TheCable

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has announced the closure of @pdpNigeria, its official Twitter handle, over “frequent unauthorised tweets”.

The party also said it did not appoint Deji Adeyanju as its new media director, describing the position as “alien” to it.

Chinwe Nnorom, PDP head of publicity, made the announcement in a statement issued on Monday.

This is the third time the party will shut down its official Twitter handle.

“I am directed by the leadership of our great party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) led by H E Senator Ahmed Mohammed Makarfi, CON, to announce the immediate closure of the party’s official Twitter handle, @pdpnigeria and re-launch of another handle for effective use and control. The new handle is @officialpdpnig henceforth,” Nnorom said.

“Following these developments, the party hereby informs all its members, supporters, friends, the media and general public to ignore and disregard any tweet from the handle @pdpnigeria forthwith.

“Also, the PDP hereby states unequivocally that the position of director of new media is non-existent and alien to the PDP establishment manual, and has not appointed Prince Deji Adeyanju as the PDP director of new media.

“For emphasis, social (new) media is one of the units in the publicity division of the party and not a separate directorate, division or unit.”

The party also condemned “incessant and unauthorised” statements purportedly issued on its behalf, warning members to desist from acting without authorisation.

“In addition, the leadership has also frowned at the incessant and unauthorised statements that are being issued by some party members purported to have spoken for and on behalf of the party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP),” Nnorom said.

“For the record, you may recall that the national publicity secretary on June 17, 2015 issued a statement titled: ‘PDP disown group over unauthorised statements on Buhari’ and urged members nationwide to desist from making official statement(s) on behalf of the party without authorisation.

“For clarification, the national publicity secretary, Prince Dayo Adeyeye is currently the chief spokesman and image-maker of our party in line  with the PDP constitution. Consequently, nobody is allowed to issue official statement or speak for and on behalf of the party except authorised by the party hierarchy to do so. The leadership warns that it will not hesitate to take disciplinary measures accordingly against any member that flouts this directive.”