The ruling party, the All Progressives Congress, has denied the allegation by the major opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party, that the Director General of the Department of State Service, Lawal Daura, is a card-carrying member of the APC.
In a statement issued on Thursday in Lagos by its National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed, the party described the accusation as “absurd and frivolous.”
The party also challenged the PDP to publish any evidence it may have to confirm the allegation, saying that, “After all, it is trite that he who alleges, must prove.”
The statement read in part, “In the absence of that, the PDP must call another press conference to publicly apologise to all Nigerians for engaging in bare-faced lies.”
The APC expressed shock that the PDP had started exhibiting “all the symptoms of hallucination so soon after its gravy train derailed,” saying it was obvious that the party had started “hearing voices.”
The statement said, “We know that the psyche of the PDP has been badly affected by its loss of power at the centre. Even the party itself has admitted that much. That situation has now been compounded by the fact that the party is broke. It is, therefore, not a surprise that it is no longer able to think straight. The reality of its new situation is just beginning to dawn on it.
Meanwhile, the national leadership of the PDP on Thursday insisted that Daura was a member of the APC.
The National Publicity Secretary of the party, Chief Olisa Metuh, who spoke with journalists in Abuja, said it was wrong for his counterpart in the APC, Mohammed, to deny the allegation.
Metuh also said it was “worrisome” for the APC spokesman to say that the former ruling party was “broke.”
Metuh said, “We have our record; it is on record that he is a member of the APC. That is not in contention.”
He gave out newspapers cuttings where the name of Daura appeared as a member of the APC presidential campaign council.
He also provided other cuttings where Daura was seen congratulating Buhari after winning the election and where he (Daura) took photographs with members of the security committee of the APC presidential council
