The presidency said yesterday that it has no
partisan interest in the forthcoming governorship election Edo State billed for
September 19.
According to it, the repeated sentiments displayed by the opposition Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) over a recent video clip is a complete waste of time.
The PDP, in the last few days, had been holding several press briefings over a
video clip showing the chief of staff to the President, Ibrahim Gambari,
chatting with former national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC),
Adams Oshiomhole, along a walkway in the presidential villa.
In one of its press conferences, PDP’s national chairman, Prince Uche Secondus
called on the United Nation (UN), the European Union (EU) and other
international bodies to place visa restriction on Gambari, Oshiomhole, and
other individuals as punishment for allegedly plotting to truncate democracy
and good governance in Nigeria.
But a top presidency source told State
House correspondents that the opposition party made a mistake by trying to
malign the person of the president’s chief of staff, stressing that all the
efforts directed at discrediting Gambari have failed in the face of his solid
credibility.
The source who did not want his name in print said the chief of staff was only
doing his job of leading the former APC national chairman to meet with the
president.
The villa source further added that Oshiomhole had repeated what he said in the
video at a press briefing after meeting with the president.
It would be recalled that Oshiomhole, while briefing State House correspondents
after meeting with President Buhari, explained that he came to plead with the
President to ensure security for the upcoming Edo State governorship election,
citing threats of violence by PDP.
The presidency source, however, wondered why the PDP decided to mudsling with
“an incomplete information”, saying no one knew how the conversation started or
how it ended.
The source added: “What PDP is doing is called ‘playing the devil’s card’,
which is all about suggesting ideas into people’s heads, the truth does not
matter in such an atmosphere. What I am convinced of is that even the leaders
of the PDP know that what they are doing is wicked and unethical, but since it
is politics, they believe anything goes.
“How do you know the ‘arrest’ in the conversation is for PDP elements? The target in this mudslinging is the chief of staff to the President, but their mistake is that this is not a man for this sort of politics. He is way above petty politicking. He is a career diplomat and hardly interested in this kind of politics, those who know him, know this much about him”.