The Peoples Democratic Party has expressed shock over a
statement by the All Progressives Congress regarding the actual age of its
National Youth Leader, Ibrahim Jalo.
The PDP National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, in a
statement on Tuesday, said it was disheartening that the APC had refused to
shed its unnecessary penchant for lies, even in the face of overwhelming
evidence to the contrary.
Metuh said records available to the ruling party indicated
that Jalo was 52 years, and not 49, as claimed by the opposition party.
The ruling party’s spokesperson was reacting to a statement
by the National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, that Jalo
was not up to 53 years as being claimed.
Mohammed had said, “We have been able to confirm that the
APC Youth Leader, Jalo was actually born on the 13th of April 1971, and that
puts his age at 43, and not 49, 52 or 53, as being falsely circulated.
“This is not to say a 43-year-old man is ideal to be our
youth leader but simply to put the records straight, while the party leadership
continues to listen to the voices of concern by our teeming youths.”
But Metuh insisted in the statement that, “It is a public
knowledge that Ibrahim Dasuki Jalo contested the Gombe/Kwame/Funakaye Federal
Constituency seat in the House of Representatives in 2011 during which he
declared his age to be 49 years. The records are there and they speak for
themselves.
“If Ibrahim Dasuki Jalo was 49 years in 2011, it naturally
follows that he is 52 at present, for which he should be grateful to God. It is
therefore clear that the statement by the APC declaring him to be 43 years is
false.
“Whilst we concede that the APC has the right to select a
person of any age for any position within their fold, including a man of 52 as
the national youth leader, we are however shocked that they chose to lie over
an issue as ordinary as the age of a national officer.”
Metuh said in lying over the age of its national officer,
the APC had shown that “it has little regard for integrity and that its
statements cannot be trusted.”
He finally advised the APC, now under a new leadership, to
imbibe the culture of integrity and honesty, especially as Nigerians deserve to
know the truth and the correct state of facts always.
No comments:
Post a Comment