PDP Replies APC On Boko Haram Sponsorship

The People's Democratic Party is not taking the statement by the
Chairman of the All Progressives Congress on the backers of insurgents
in Nigeria lying down.

Less than 24-hours after John Oyegun accused the PDP and its
leadership of knowing the sponsors of Boko Haram, the PDP has
condemned the APC leader's accusation, saying the statement is
completely lacking in validity, character and intellectual content
befitting of a National Chairman of a political party.

The PDP, in a press statement released on Wednesday by its National
Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, said that Mr Oyegun has succeeded in
further exposing the desperation of the APC to launder its image
through renewed propaganda and blackmail.

The PDP further said "Nigerians have since noted the pattern and
timing of violent attacks against our people which betray a trend
tailored against the PDP and the Federal Government and provide
impetus for the APC to find a voice and thrive.

"They know that it has become a recurring decimal that whenever the
PDP or the Federal Government records or is about to record a major
milestone, insurgents launch attacks on the people"

The PDP, however, advised the APC to be nationalistic in its dealings
and shun statements of divisive tendencies.

The All Progressives Congress, APC, had, on Tuesday, challenged
President Goodluck Jonathan to act decisively and hand two alleged
sponsors of the Boko Haram group to the International Criminal Court
(ICC), The Hague, for investigation and prosecution.

The party said that a foreign negotiator engaged by the Federal
Government had revealed that a former governor and a retired General
were sponsors of the Boko Haram sect.

Chairman of the party, John Oyegun, who made the disclosure, insisted
that the APC was not behind the Boko Haram sect and demanded that the
Federal Government should act immediately to end the growing
insecurity in the North-East.

Mr Oyegun, who was speaking during a press conference in Abuja,
further noted that "Boko Haram sponsors have been exposed. They are
within the ruling PDP. They are friends of President Jonathan. He
cannot pretend not to know who they are and what they have done and
are still doing."