PDP dissociates self from Fayose’s death prophecy advert

monjola sotubo

January 20, 2015 10:43 PM

Fayose placed the ad on the front pages of prominent newspapers on Monday, January 19, and added on Tuesday that he would not apologize for it.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has dissociated itself from the controversial advert placed by Ekiti State Governor, Ayo Fayose which appeared to prophesy death for the Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Muhammadu Buhari.

Fayose placed the ad on the front pages of prominent newspapers on Monday, January 19, and added on Tuesday that he would not apologize for it.

The PDP has however said that the governor merely stated his personal opinion which did not reflect the stance of President Goodluck Jonathan or the party itself.

This was stated by the spokesperson of the president’s campaign organization, Femi Fani-Kayode who spoke to journalists on the matter today, January 20.

He said:

"Governor Ayo Fayose is a distinguished leader of our party. A democratically-elected governor and someone we have immense respect and affection for, but he released this advert in his own name. That represents his own personal opinion, which he is entitled to.”

“What I can tell you on our part, as the presidential campaign organisation, is that it does not represent the opinion of the campaign organisation or indeed that of the president,” Fani-Kayode added.

“It is his opinion, which he is entitled to, and he is somebody that we have immense respect for; he is a leading member of the party. I have spoken with him and we respect him, but for anybody to suggest that this is the position of the presidential campaign organisation or President Goodluck Jonathan, that will be most unfair,” he continued.

“If we wanted to say something like that, we will say it without any kind of apology but of course we will never say that because we believe in the sanctity of life. Age is not a function of how long you will live. It is important that we recognize the fact that age is not an indication of how long somebody will live,” Fani-Kayode said.

“We believe strongly that we must continue to show immense respect for the person of Gen. Buhari in terms of his person and his health, though we believe it is important to always raise questions about facts; you know what these questions are and we will continue to raise them,” he added.

The controversial ad showed pictures of previous Nigerian leaders who had died while in office and a picture of Buhari. It then went further to urge Nigerians not to vote for Buhari in order to prevent another state burial.

monjola sotubo