The Peoples Democratic Party has accused the ruling All Progressives Congress of being the author of hate speeches in the country.
It also accused President Muhammadu Buhari of joining the fray in his desire to oust the regime of former President Goodluck Jonathan.
It said the claim in a statement made by the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, in which he accused the opposition political parties in the country as being responsible for hate speeches, disinformation and fake news, was not correct.
The spokesman for the PDP, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, who stated this in a statement in Abuja on Sunday, recalled some of the statements he alleged were made by Mohammed as the spokesman for the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria and the APC before he was appointed a minister.
Mohammed had said at the extraordinary meeting of the National Council on Information, which had the theme, ‘’Hate Speeches, Disinformation, Fake News and National Unity,’’ in Jos, Plateau State, on Thursday, that the aim of those behind the hate speeches was to discredit the government.
Adeyeye, while faulting the claim of the minister, asked him(Mohammed) to review his past speeches and statements as the spokesman for the opposition ACN/APC.
He said the minister would agree that the APC leaders/members were the architect and sustainers of hate speeches in the country.
The statement said, “In case Lai Mohammed has forgotten, let us remind him and his parties, the ACN and the APC that in their desperate quest to grab power by all means, organised and carried out a series of campaigns of calumny as the opposition designed to mislead the public, discredit the person and office of past PDP-led administrations especially, that of the immediate past President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan in order to cause disaffection amongst Nigerians against his government.
“Mohammed as the spokesman for the ACN at a press conference in April 2013, raised a false alarm alleging that the Federal Government of Nigeria under President Jonathan had awarded an oil pipeline protection contract to serve as a smokescreen in funding activities that would create chaos in the South-West region.
“Of course, it turned out that no such contract was ever awarded by the Jonathan administration.
Adeyeye, who was a former minister of state for works, also alleged that President Buhari had also made hate speeches that caused wide spread violence and killings of Nigerians in the 2011 general elections.
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