October 10, (THEWILL) – A former National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Olisah Metuh, has called on the leadership of the party, to as a matter of urgency, dissociate the PDP from Reno Omokri, over his disparaging attacks on Igbos, as well as other individuals and groups.
Metuh said Omokri’s tweets asking Igbos to leave Lagos for choosing to support Peter Obi instead of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, in the forthcoming 2023 presidential election, is not only ‘insensitive’, but capable of ‘desecrating’ the ideals of the founders of the PDP.
Omokri had said in a Facebook post: “You rage against Tinubu. You insult his ethnicity (who are the most accommodating people in Nigeria and perhaps Africa). You accuse him of using MC Oluomo. You say Obi is far better than Tinubu. You say Obi will turn Nigeria into paradise.
“Yet, you remain in Lagos and refuse to leave Lagos for the paradise that Obi created in Anambra! The only reason I am against Tinubu is because as a drug lord, he can be blackmailed by foreign intelligence services. Otherwise, he performed as Lagos Governor. If you maintain that Obi did better than Tinubu, prove it by packing your kaya and relocate to Anambra!”
But reacting, the PDP chieftain said if Omokri is not stopped, his tweet and other similar posts shared by him would be passed off as the party’s official position.
He noted that Omokri is not a PDP presidential campaign council member, but has been using his closeness to the party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, to make disparaging remarks against individuals and groups.
“The time has come for the Peoples Democratic Party to issue a disclaimer to Reno Omokri’s posts.
“Whilst he is not a member of the Presidential Campaign team, his closeness to the Presidential candidate and his open support for the party may mislead people to believe his posts as representing (sic) the views of the Party.
“There is no way any responsible or respectable democrat can condone such insensitivity.
“We did not join politics to mock or disparage any set of individuals, least of all a whole tribe.
“The founding fathers of the PDP had noble ideals and its ideals and values should not be desecrated by any individual, on the altar of a false strategy to engineer hatred against any tribe or stroke an ethnic contest.
“We all should insist on an issue-based campaign”, Metuh wrote in a Facebook post.
Omokri, a former aide to ex-president Goodluck Jonathan, has made it a call of duty to attack Peter Obi and his supporters on social media ever since the Labour Party presidential candidate dumped the PDP to pursue his ambition on another platform.
The former presidential aide dedicates an average of five to eight posts daily to de-marketing Obi and inciting other tribes against voting for him in the February 25 presidential poll.
Such posts could be found below:
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