Vice presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the 2019 elections, Peter Obi, has dismissed the allegation of ethnic bias in the Onitsha Bridge Head clean-up currently trending in internet chat rooms of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). The clean-up exercise, which hitherto received much commendation, was undertaken during Obi’s days as Governor of Anambra State but has suddenly become twisted by APC cyber attack dogs.
“Since Mr. Peter Obi emerged as the running mate of PDP Presidential Candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the panic in APC circles has been palpable and, unable to get anything tangible to hold on to, the attack dogs have been desperately clutching at straws in their doomed search for non-existent evidence with which to nail Mr. Obi.
“The latest of such revisionism is the failed attempt to twist the facts regarding the Onitsha Bridge Head clean-up. Those peddling the falsehood that it was targeted at traders from other parts of the country have conveniently chosen to forget that many of the affected traders were from Anambra State and some other parts of Igbo land,” Obi’s Special Adviser, Valentine Obienyem, said in a statement issued on Thursday.
He insisted that Governor Obi carried along every stakeholder, including briefing and inviting the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar, in connection with the project, which has left Onitsha cleaner and safer.
“We vehemently reject any suggestion that Mr. Obi is an ethnic or religious bigot. He is a detribalisied and liberal Nigerian with friends all over the country and whose charity works are spread across the country,” Obienyem said.
He equally denied rumours making the round that Obi has promised that a PDP Federal Government next year would abolish first class travels by and foreign medical treatment by public officials. “At no time did Mr. Obi make any of these statements being ascribed to him. Nigerians should ignore these rumours and wait patiently for the manifesto of the Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and PDP,” Obienyem said.
He urged the public to disregard the desperate attempts by detractors to hang non-existing sins on Obi’s neck, assuring that the PDP Vice Presidential Candidate would not be distracted by the antics of the opposition.
