Buhari Govt Mocks PDP For Suspending Campaigns Over Onnoghen’s Suspension

The President Muhammadu Buhari administration has mocked the decision of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to suspend its election campaigns nationwide over the suspension of Justice Walter Onnoghen as the Chief Justice of Nigeria.

The National Chairman of the PDP, Prince Uche Secondus, had in a statement on Saturday announced that the opposition party was suspending its campaigns for 72 hours over Onnoghen’s controversial suspension.

But reacting, the Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, described the move as PDP’s tactic of hiding its face in shame knowing that its campaign had floundered.

Mohammed said, “Which campaign? Their campaign was over a long time ago. There is nothing to suspend. We said it that their campaign had floundered.

“You can now see. What they are doing now is looking for a face-saving way out of a dead and buried campaign.

“And in any event, let’s ask them this question: Is there something that they know that we don’t know? Is there something between them and the suspended CJN?

“Otherwise, we did not see why they should suspend their campaign anyway, but I can understand that their campaign was bound to end this way,” Mohammed said.

He said while Nigerians had allegedly been trooping out in large numbers wherever the President’s campaign ship berths, he claimed that the PDP supporters had been dwindling by the day.

On the outcry by some people and organisations over Justice Onnoghen’s suspension, the minister said it was troubling that those who “are crying foul over the suspension of the CJN have actually ignored the fact that a serving Chief Justice not only amassed millions of dollars in his account, but admitted that he forgot to declare same in his Assets Declaration Form.”

According to him, “For anybody who read Mr. President’s address yesterday, two things stood out. The first is that additional evidence has just been revealed that the suspended CJN refused to declare millions of dollars in his possession.

“More worrisome is the fact that when the suspended CJN was confronted with the petition that he failed to declare his assets, he added that it was a mistake, that he forgot.

“Now, I would have been a happier person if the same people who are now crying tyranny and dictatorship could really address the issue raised by the President, in his address on Friday, that additional investigations have revealed that several millions of dollars were found in the CJN’s account.

“And when the CJN was confronted with the original allegation, he admitted that he forgot to make full declaration, and that it was a mistake,” said the Information Minister.