From Geoffrey Anyanwu, Enugu

The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Enugu State has frowned at what it called the deliberate maligning of its governorship candidate, Peter Mbah, by opposition figures in the state.

The party stated that some misguided members of the society have continually hidden under the anonymity of the virtual world to peddle sheer falsehood and utter malicious content and urged law enforcement agencies to fish out and bring to book those dragging the hard-earned reputation of its candidate, Mbah to the mud of public obloquy.

Addressing reporters at a press briefing on the issue, the Director of Communications/Spokesman Enugu State PDP Campaign Organisation, Nana Ogbodo, noted that since the beginning of campaigns for the forthcoming elections, “those who ought to have known better, have sought to revile the prevailing civility in the state and drag the hard-earned reputation of Enugu’s illustrious sons to the mud of public obloquy.

“Lately, the state has been inundated with clearly malicious jingles and sundry content conceived with the devious intent to malign the reputation of our governorship candidate, Dr Peter Ndubuisi Mbah,” he said.

Daily Sun has gathered that what broke the camel’s back is a recent jingle titled “Ego Ndi Enugu” that has gone viral, alleging that Mbah’s Pinnacle Oil and Gas and some property of some other leaders in PDP in the state were built with Enugu state money.

But Ogbodo stressed that campaigns were made for the candidates to tell the people what he or she would do for them and how he intends to go about it if elected and not for mudslinging and character assassination.

Insisting that PDP as a party takes exception to slanderous campaigns he said, “Despite the disingenuous attempt to mask the identity of the purveyors, it is not difficult to deduce the source of these slanderous messages.

Related News

“We are not in the least surprised by such a discovery, as the messages are in sync with the characters of the linchpins whose political careers are typified by mudslinging. Whereas most of these pretenders have no record of success in any previous endeavour, they are wont to rate any other person’s successes from the warped prism of their serial failings, after all, it is often typical of scoundrels to assume that their enemies are the enemies of God!

“Rather than devote efforts to enunciate a functional blueprint, or nurture their tarnished reputations, these besmirched opposition elements have chosen, quite ironically, to contrive a campaign of calumny against someone who, by his sheer dint of hard work and revolutionary ideas, has been able, through the Pinnacle Oil success story, to give Enugu State a salient definition in the national map of entrepreneurship, thus underscoring that we are also blessed with men of distinct abilities.

“Such a dirty ploy is reflective of the Socratic saying that slander becomes the tool of the loser when the debate is lost! Yet, the PDP Campaign Organisation would like to emphasise that slander is never permissible in any society governed by the rule of law.

Noting that Gov Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi had enthroned an enabling environment characterised by restraint even in the face of brazen provocation, such unrestrained freedom, not guaranteed in some states around Enugu, Ogbodo said the purveyors of falsehood knew all that but decided to be mischievous.

 “Fortunately, such lies can only titillate a few. The larger section of the electorate would rather be treated to engaging debates and ennobling campaigns. This is what our candidate has been carrying out through his numerous town hall meetings across the state,” he said.

He warned that the right of free expression guaranteed by the Nigerian constitution does not translate to a right to deliberately impugn people’s reputations.

“We therefore hereby call on the law enforcement agencies to dig deep and bring to law all those who have by these incendiary messages gone beyond the threshold of law and decency. It is also pertinent to restate that while we may have chosen to go high as they consciously plunge lower to depths of depravity, we are not averse to seeking legal redress when the line of decency is breached as presently obtains,” he stated.