Opposition Parties “should stop running helter skelter when no one is chasing them” – Okupe

Dr Doyin Okupe
Dr Doyin Okupe

The Presidency has denied any plans to frustrate efforts by opposition political parties in the country to merge. The Presidency also discredited the report published in a national newspaper on Wednesday, which alleged that it has issued directives to frustrate merger of some political parties, hound opposition leaders and increase price of petroleum products.

A newspaper had reported on Wednesday that the presidency has issued directives against the opposition leaders, in a bid to frustrate the proposed merger of the opposition political parties in the country.

In a statement signed by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr Doyin Okupe, the Presidency said the publication of an item purported to be a bromide of a presidential directive on a number of issues called for concern among all stakeholders and citizens of the country. Okupe said the proposed merger of the opposition political parties, the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN); All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP) and the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) was never a threat to President Goodluck Jonathan or the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

According to him, “We wish to state unequivocally that the document published in the newspaper, alleging that the presidency has issued directives to frustrate merger of some political parties, hound opposition leaders and increase price of petroleum products is a forgery and an amateurish one for that matter… 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,” he added.

The Senior Special Assistant then added that “it was embarrassing that opposition political parties would jump at the cheap blackmail and try to incite members of the public based on a false and nonexistent document… If people with such dubious tactics and strategy are the calibre of people angling to govern Nigeria, then as a nation, we must intensify our prayers.

“We have said it before and will say it again that the coming together of any political parties or associations is of no concern to President Goodluck Jonathan and the leadership of these groups should stop running helter-skelter when no one is chasing them, neither should they seek for scapegoats in the Presidency for their own self inflicted inadequacies,” he added.