The All Progressives Congress (APC) on Monday denied zoning any political office in the 2015 general elections, as being speculated by some media houses in the country.
There were stories that the party had zoned its vice presidential slot to the South-West instead of the South-East and that the National Leader of the party had started searching for a possible candidate to fill the space. But the party has dismissed the speculation as reckless, baseless and completely unfounded.
In a statement issued in Lagos on Monday by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, APC claimed that the report was orchestrated by those who are threatened by the high profile and prospects of the party’s candidate in the forthcoming governorship election in Anambra.
“Having realised that their attempt to milk the so-called deportation issue has fallen flat on its face, these desperate politicians have now resorted to outright lies and wild imagination,” it said.
“They figure that if they played the South-West against the south-east, by saying the APC has zoned the VP slot to the former over the latter, some people may just fall for it. This is cheap politics.”
APC assured Nigerians that the party has, at no time, discussed the issue of its presidential and vice presidential slots, hence could not have zoned any of the posts.
“Our party is an inclusive national party, which will definitely accommodate the interest of all Nigerians in all its actions. We are therefore urging all the good people of Nigeria to ignore this fabricated story. There is no iota of truth in it,” the party said
APC expressed concern that a newspaper with a good pedigree will lend itself to be used to push such a dangerous and irresponsible agenda by reporting fiction as fact.
“One would have expected a media organisation that is worth its salt to be circumspect in reporting such fiction. It is particularly interesting that all the media organisation had — as a basis for the story — was a ‘strong indication’ that the party will zone its vice presidential slot to the South-West.
“Not once was a single source quoted by name, for such an important story. This is the height of irresponsible reporting that runs against the grain of responsibility, fairness and accuracy in journalism,” the party said.
