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Wednesday, 6 May 2015

President Jonathan Responsible For His Defeat – Olisa Metuh The national leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Monday exonerated itself from the defeat of President Goodluck Jonathan in the March 28 presidential election, saying the president failed because he did not carry the party along in his campaign.

Olisa Metuh, the PDP’s national publicity secretary, made the
assertion while addressing reporters at the party secretariat in
Abuja on Monday. He accused the president and his
associates of not only failing to carry the party leadership
along but also for ignoring the advice offered by party leaders.
Mr. Metuh specifically blamed the hate campaign by members
of the Presidential Campaign Committee for producing the
electoral failure of many party candidates.
The publicity secretary disclosed that the PDP spent more
than N4 billion to sponsor its candidates in the presidential,
governorship, National Assembly and state legislative
elections.
“We 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,”
said Mr. Metuh, adding, “We cannot be held responsible when
our advice was ignored.”
He told the media that the party leadership “generated more
than N7 billion, N8 billion or N 9billion. We generated more
than N7 billion…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 N21 billion. 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 gubernatorial candidate that received less than
N100 million from this [National] Working Committee. And the
House of Assembly candidates across the country got money
from us.”

According to Mr. Metuh, the funds donated by the party
leadership to candidates were “were given to some ministers
and some people to distribute to the state. 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.
“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,” said the party
spokesman, adding, “This is clear, all Nigerians knew what
happened.”
Mr. Metuh denied the allegation that he and several other
members of the National Working Committee (NWC) received
N30 million each. According to him, “we state clearly that we
have not been given any money. Rather, this NWC generated
billions of naira from the sale of forms from where we funded
our candidates for governorship and state assembly elections
in all the states of the federation—in addition to funds
released to key leaders, including NWC and Board of Trustees
members to prosecute the campaigns in their various areas.”
He added that the members of the party’s NWC were willing
and ready to make their accounts public in line with the
freedom of information law.
A day earlier, associates of President Goodluck Jonathan had
given SaharaReporters documentary proof of what they
alleged were greedy amounts collected by each member of the
NWC, including the party’s national chairman Adamu Mu’azu.
The sources at the Presidency accused Mr. Mu’azu and other
NWC officials of pursuing their private material interests at
the detriment of the party’s electoral prospects.

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