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Fani-Kayode lied, PDP not leading in 23 states – Jega  

Prof. Attahiru Jega, INEC Chairman

Professor Attahiru Jega has stated that Femi Fani-Kayode lied about his claim that the Peoples Democratic Party is winning 23 states across the country in the presidential elections that began on 28 March.

At a news conference in Abuja at the International Conference Centre, Jega urged Nigerians to ignore reports pushed by people particularly those who are partisan. “You should be careful of the information people who are partisan are pushing out,” Jega said after he was asked if its true that Fani-Kayode’s claims that PDP is leading in 23 states is true.

He also stated that Nigerians should not categorically say that anyone is a winner. ” People are allowed to publish confirmed results but no one should any candidate a winner.

It would be recalled that Fani-Kayode, the spokesperson of President Goodluck Jonathan’s campaign organisation claimed that based on the current coalition of results by the party, the incumbent and his party are leading the presidential elections.

“As we speak now, we are winning in 23 states and we have 64 per cent while the APC is winning in14 states and has 36 per cent,” Femi Fani-Kayode said in a press statement sent to media houses on Sunday evening.

Read Mr. Fani-Kayode’s full statement below:
TEXT OF A PRESS CONFERENCE BY THE DIRECTOR OF MEDIA AND PUBLICITY, PDP PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN ORGANISATION, CHIEF FEMI FANI-KAYODE, ON SUNDAY, MARCH 29, 2015

We are deeply concerned by the level of disinformation and falsehood that is being peddled around by the friends of the opposition in the media and particularly their paid agents and associates on the social media about the results of Saturdays elections. Since yesterday afternoon, they have been releasing fake results and they have been attempting to mislead the Nigerian people and our friends in the international community. The public have been inundated with lie after lie about the APC’s so-called victories in virtually every single polling booth, ward, local government area and state in the country. This is not only nonsensical but it is also far-fetched, absurd and childish.

Two opposition media houses and their associates in the social media went as far as to shamelessly claim that President Goodluck Jonathan lost in my polling unit and in my ward in Ile-Ife, when in actual fact the President not only won in my polling booth and ward but he also won in virtually every other ward in the four local government areas of Ile-IIfe in Osun state where I come from.

The dirty lies that these two media houses have told is just one example of the gross and irresponsible mendacities and falsehood that the agents and associates of the APC habitually enjoy peddling. As we have always said, they are a party of liars that are led and inspired by a small cabalistic cult of shameful deceivers, liars and cheap propaganda merchants. In them there is no truth and lying is their second nature and natural habitat.

The APC, through their agents in the media, also indulged in many other fanciful and vain mendacities about many other PDP leaders. For example they claimed that Musiliu Obanikoro who is presently the Honorable Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Iyiola Omisore, the leader of our party in Osun State, Olusegun Mimiko, the Governor of Ondo state, David Mark, the Senate President, and so many other of our highly esteemed and respected leaders also lost their polling units and wards to General Muhammadu Buhari and the APC candidates for the various elections.

Needless to say these claims by the APC are not only false but they are also absurd and nauseating. Such mendacities are indicative of the fact that they have lost touch with reality as we have always suspected. As a matter of fact we are surprised that they didn’t claim that the President himself also lost in his polling unit and ward and that he in fact voted for Buhari rather than for himself. Such is their level of depravity and deceit that they will manufacture any lie and assert any falsehood just to gain an edge and feed their vain delusions.

The lies they have told about the so-called victory of Buhari in Ile-Ife, Osun state is particularly distasteful because not only has Jonathan appeared to have won in Ile-Ife but our PDP candidate for the Federal House of Representatives in that constituency, Mr. Albert Adeogun, appears to have won the election hands down and defeated Mr. Rotimi Makinde of the APC, who is the sitting member of the Federal House of Representatives. Our candidate for the House of Representatives in Ilesa in the same senatorial district, Mr. Wole Oke, appears to have won his election as well which is another major blow for the APC in Osun state.

Instead of acknowledging these monumental and devastating losses of some of their leading members, the APC, in their habitual manner simply continue to bury their small heads in the ground like the proverbial ostrich, live in denial and peddle lies and falsehood. It is time that they were called to order. The lies of the APC must be ignored and treated with the contempt and disdain that they deserve.

The reports that we are getting from the field is that our candidate is doing very well in the south and north central and that we are making very strong inroads into various states in the core north. The motive for the lies and disinformation of the APC is to create high expectations for their supporters so that when the real results come out and they are announced by INEC, and when those real results do not tally with the fake results that the APC have told their agents and friends to release, they will begin to run riot, create havoc and kill people.