The Presidency yesterday denied ownership of an electronic copy of a document containing a presidential directive seeking to frustrate opposition parties’ plan to merge into the All Progressives Congress (APC) ahead of the 2015 general elections. Two presidential spokesmen, Dr. Reuben Abati and Dr. Doyin Okupe, made this denial in statements they released to the public yesterday.
Outrage had trailed the media exposition of the purported presidential directive, which was reported exclusively by LEADERSHIP on Monday, that gave orders to frustrate the merger of opposition parties, increase price of fuel and put some ‘ambitious’ people such as former governor of Lagos State, Bola Tinubu and some serving state governors under surveillance.
Going further, the newspaper published a copy of the directive on Wednesday, along with the reactions from the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN ), the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association (PENGASSAN) which expressed outrage and vowed to resist any attempt by the presidency to implement the contents of the document.
The opposition parties vehemently vowed that no amount of presidential repression would stop them from providing a credible alternative political platform to the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
But special adviser to the president on media and publicity, Dr Reuben Abati, in a statement circulated to media outfits yesterday described the document “being bandied around by a section of the media as a ‘presidential directive’ on Tinubu, APC and other matters, as fictitious and designed to mislead the public, discredit the person and office of President Goodluck Jonathan and cause disaffection within the polity.”
According to him, “Careful examination reveals a mishmash of deliberately arranged and concocted lies, presented to the public as evidence of a document emanating from the Presidency.
This is not only dubious but raises concerns as to the length certain persons will go to perpetrate falsehood for the sake of their selfish ambitions.”
The statement made available to LEADERSHIP yesterday reads in part: “Several interpretations of the purported presidential directive appear to have been granted prominence by an all-too-negative segment of the media, supported by partisan political jobbers all on the premise of a suspicious-looking ‘bromide’.
“The Presidency affirms that no such directive was ever conceived nor was any such directive put forth by President Goodluck Jonathan or his aides.
“It is ironic that this is coming at a time when the president is actively engaged in serious discussions with various interest groups on how to further deepen the democratic experience as well as the key issue of how to build an economically viable federation.”
Abati went on to warn Nigerians to beware of “such tactic of old, one that seeks to undermine a current administration by creatively espousing imaginary fault lines, with the aid of fake documents to create doubt, fear and disbelief in the minds of citizens and true patriots.”
The presidential aide reiterated that the Goodluck Jonathan administration had no plan to stifle the expression of democratic ideas in the country.
“With regards to the imaginary ‘presidential directive’ released to hoodwink the general public, the government is confident that the discerning public is well aware that this purported document is alien to how things are done within this Presidency,” he said.
He noted that the media had a significant role to play in educating, enlightening and empowering the populace but urged them to exercise more responsibility in the exercise of this function in order not to mislead the trusting public.
“The President,” he said “remains committed to providing good governance to the nation, even in the face of the most uncharitable criticism by people desirous of a chaotic environment for them to thrive.
This, we accept as part of a civil engagement between elected officials and the citizenry.”
On his part, the senior special assistant to the president on public affairs, Dr Doyin Okupe, described the document as a forged material and said it fell short of the standard of official communication from the office of the president.
He further asserted that the report was a “cheap blackmail” meant to incite members of the public.
Okupe’s statement reads in part: “We wish to state unequivocally that the document is a forgery, and an amateurish one for that matter.
A close scrutiny of the bromide purportedly obtained from the Presidency reveals that it is a forgery in view of the following facts: no letter-head in the Presidency has the caption ‘Presidential Directive’ under the Coat of Arms.
“Contrary to communication practice in the Presidency, the said ‘directive’ does not contain a recipient, whether an individual, group or officials”.
“The unsigned document is riddled with serious grammatical errors that could definitely not have emanated from the office of the president of Nigeria.
The body of the document contains a number of inconsistencies and incongruities which every discerning person should be able to pick out.
For example, items 5 and 6 in the 7-paragraph document does (sic) not contain any directive and are mere statements made by the dubious author.”
Okupe went on to chide the ACN, the CPC and other groups that had expressed dismay over the alleged move by the Presidency, describing their leadership as “gullible, undiscerning and lacking in capacity for deep thinking.”
We stand by our story - LEADERSHIP
The management of LEADERSHIP said last night that it stood by its story. It said its source was credible and had been over the years.
“It is interesting that the presidency had, within 24 hours, moved from calling the story fiction to labelling it forgery.
That has not changed the fact by which we stand,” the management said.
When LEADERSHIP broke the story on Tuesday about the presidential directive seeking to frustrate the merger of the opposition parties into the All Progressives Congress, APC, some opposition parties comprising the Action Congress of Nigeria ACN, and the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) had on Wednesday criticised the directive.
The ACN and the ANPP maintained that no amount of presidential directives would stop the opposition parties from forming a credible alternative that would challenge the ruling PDP in 2015.
Some organised labour and civil societies groups including the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and PENGASSAN also reacted against the proposed hike of petrol prices between N130 and N140 in the directive, insisting that the Labour would not tolerate any price hike.
PENGASSAN also raised the alarm over the consequences of unilateral hike of petrol prices, saying that the federal government must engage all stakeholders before an holistic could be taken to remove fuel subsidy.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Add A Comment