Hate Campaigns Against Buhari Cost PDP Victory - Olisa Metuh

The National Working Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has said the hate campaign against Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari by the Jonathan team played a huge part in the party’s woeful outing during the last general elections. It also accused close associates of President Goodluck Jonathan who handled his campaign of shutting out the party leadership from the campaign.

National Publicity Secretary of the party, Chief Olisa Metuh said this at a press conference in Abuja on Monday.

He explained that erroneous belief by the Jonathan campaign that it could denigrate a respected statesman revered in the north instead on dwelling on issues cost the party critical votes in parts of the north. Metuh equally said the campaign for the sack of the NWC which was being orchestrated by some of those responsible for the party’s woes, was immoral and against logic.He also revealed that the party generated over ₦7bn from the sale of nomination and expression of interest forms most of which was used to sponsor the party’s candidates at all levels during the last elections.

In response to questions from reporters after the briefing, Metuh said, “We (NWC) did not lead the party to failure. We were not involved in the campaigns and our advice was ignored. If we had handled the campaign, Mr. President would have won the election. We cannot be held responsible when our advice was ignored.”

“I can tell you from my own records that we generated billions. I think we generated more than ₦7bn, ₦8bn or ₦9bn. We generated more than ₦7bn and we generated a lot of money.

“The first initial donation we made was half a billion to the Presidential campaign funds even though we were not involved in raising funds for the presidential campaign.

“They generated campaign funds up to ₦21bn. The party was not involved in it and the party cannot account for it because we were not involved in that money. It was a Jerry Gana Committee and they handled it and nobody can question us for that.

“There is no governorship candidate that received less than ₦100m from this Working Committee. And the House of Assembly candidates across the country got money from us. It depends on the state.

“These monies were given to some ministers and some people to distribute to the states. In some states it was the campaign coordinators that we gave. In some states, we gave to the governors or directly to the candidates of the party.

Mutuh also said, “For those of us in the North where the type of campaign that we generated made it impossible for our leaders in the North to garner support for our candidate because of the hate campaign that was generated we are not answerable for it.

“Whilst I am not holding any excuse for them we cannot be held accountable for issues that were generated that worked against our candidate in the North. This is clear, all Nigerians knew what happened.”