THE People’s Democratic Party (PDP) on Tuesday said Alhaji Lai Mohammed should stop blaming the party over the appellation of ‘liar’ which has been given to him by Nigerians.

Speaking in a chat with INDEPENDENT, the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, said it is unfortunate that rather than dishing out statements with facts as the mouthpiece of the Federal Government and doing everything to possibly cleanse his name which many Nigerians have identified with lies and fake information, the Minister was busy accusing the PDP of being responsible because they are still smarting from the electoral defeat they suffered in the 2015 general election.

“If you make a statement and people are doubting you, all you need to do is to present the facts and people will know you are speaking the truth. But if indeed you have been telling lies, it is also the responsibility of Nigerians to come out boldly and bring it to the knowledge of everybody that all you have been saying are nothing but lies. And so you cannot blame anybody for that. You cannot hold anybody responsible for your lies.

“If Lai Mohammed thinks that PDP is still smarting from the election defeat of 2015, that to me is a lie because we have since moved on and we are already looking forward to the 2019 election.

“PDP members are justified to call him a liar for saying we are the ones sponsoring those calling him liar. He should come clean. If he can’t do that then Nigerians are justified by calling him a liar, which he truly is in the absence of facts,” he said.

The Minister, during the weekend, had said as the face of then opposition party, All Progressives Congress (APC), the PDP have singled him out as the arrowhead of the defeat they suffered in 2015 and they have refused to forgive him for the role he played as the spokesperson of the then opposition party.

According to him, having won the election and appointed by the government as its mouthpiece, the PDP has decided to pay him back by labeling any information coming from him as lies and fake news.

While acknowledging that his name ‘Lai’ has further compounded the problem, he challenged his critics to present one lie he has told either as spokesman of APC or as Minister of Information.

“I have two burdens. The first is that I happen to be the face of the opposition and PDP has not forgiven me and they will never forgive me. I think they look at the magnitude of what has happened to them and they hold me solely responsible; which is not fair. But, I did my bit.

“Now becoming the face of government again; so it is automatic that whatever comes from Lai Mohammed, we must shoot it down as fake news and a lie. Unfortunately, my father gave me the name Lai also. So, it makes it very easy for them.

“But what I challenge them every time is, ‘Please, give me one thing I said that is not true’.  Emotionally, you may not agree with me but in terms of facts and figures, I have never said anything which they can dispute.  You don’t have to like it but you can’t deny that they are facts,” he said.   –  Independent

– Nov 9, 2017 @ 16:39 GMT |