Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
Buhari Media Organization (BMO) has claimed that the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, could not raise fund to bankroll his campaigns for the 2019 presidential election.
The group in a statement signed by its Chairman, Niyi Akinsiju and Secretary, Cassidy Madueke, further alleged that some governors with big re-election battles on their hands and other financiers have declined interest in rallying round Atiku on account of the type of baggage he carries.
“What the PDP Presidential Campaign Council does not want Nigerians to know is that most of the party’s founding members and those it expects to fund its campaign activities have turned their backs on the candidate.
“Aside from that, some of the governors who have big re-election battles on their hands and some others are just not interested in rallying around a candidate with the type of baggage Atiku has.
“Or are the party leaders not aware that some of their governorship and National Assembly candidates even have the image of the President on their campaign posters rather than that of Atiku Abubakar?” the statement read.
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Also miffed by the continued attacks the PDP has hauled at the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the group warned the opposition party to look for more creative ways of reviving its flagging presidential campaign rather than demonising INEC and other national institutions.
BMO claimed that PDP had resorted to bullying tactics because of the reality that its presidential candidate had no chance to upstage President Muhammadu Buhari in the election.
“Now that PDP’s presidential campaign has stalled and lost steam almost as soon as it began, as a result of lack of support, even among its leading members, it thinks the best way is to blackmail everyone at INEC.
“How could they even accuse the commission of making a U-turn on the use of Smart Card Readers for the upcoming election? Or even raise dust over the appointment of Amina Zakari as the head of INEC’s in-house coalition centre committee, same role she played in 2015.
“It is good that INEC has given the party the response it deserves, but we know that all these are diversionary tactics to deflect attention from a campaign that is nothing to write home about.
“We see it as an admission of failure even before the first ballot, based on the reality on ground,” the statement read.
The group further urged the PDP to do more to convince skeptical party leaders to embrace its presidential candidate in other to ensure a semblance of a contest next month instead of seeking to use INEC as an excuse for its impending defeat.
BMO also decried what it described as the use of local and foreign trolls by PDP to further its goal of discrediting INEC and other national institutions.
“Aside from hiring foreign hacks to malign the country, PDP is shamelessly using its members who are embedded in a so-called coalition to push out false narratives and fake news as part of efforts to give the impression of an opposition coalition against President Buhari and the governing All Progressives Congress (APC) .
“This is a group whose spokesman, Ikenga Ugochinyere, was until recently an aide of Senate President Bukola Saraki and which consists of mushroom parties which jointly could not muster more than a handful of votes in the recent Osun State gubernatorial elections.
“How could such a group even pose a threat in a national election?”
It assured that President Buhari had enough goodwill and support especially among discerning Nigerians who were aware of the massive infrastructural development across the country to coast to victory.
“We make bold to say that the president still enjoys the support of majority of those who gave him what Buhari supporters refer to as the 12 million vote bank in 2011 which increased to over 15 million in 2015.
“Add that to the millions of beneficiaries of Africa’s largest social welfare scheme and those who are witnesses to new road and rail projects, then it is safe to say the opposition party and its minions have already accepted defeat more than one month to the Presidential election,” the statement read.