The party made the denial in a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Mr Kola Ologbondiyan, in Abuja.

It described the insinuation as laughable, infantile and diversionary, and accused its opponents of sponsoring the allegation.

It stated that it was aware that its opponents were uncomfortable with the growing popularity of its presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, and were attempting to inject crisis into its campaign.

The party that Abubakar’s campaign was owned and driven by the Nigerian public and would never have the kind of rift ravaging campaigns of some of its opponents.

According to it, Abubakar has been running a transparent and people-driven campaign, anchored on volunteered support of overwhelming majority of Nigerians.

It pointed that in spite of the resort to smeared campaign against the party, Nigerians would not be distracted from their collective resolve to vote in its candidate.

It added that Abubakar had proven capacity and would return “our country to the path of national cohesion and economic prosperity’’.