“The Director of SSS that was appointed is a member of the APC. The SSS is like the FBI. It’s not for political party members. It has never happened in any democracy in the world,” he said.
In an exclusive interview with SaharaTV, Olisa Metuh, the National Publicity Secretary of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), described the state of his party since losing it’s 16 year grip on power in Nigeria. He covered a wide range of topics from President Buhari’s visit to Washington DC, USA to the imminent probe of officials from Jonathan administration.
During the interview with SaharaTV correspondent, Kwesi Baako, Mr. Metuh chastised President Buhari’s recent visit to the United States. He said that the visit was poorly planned and inappropriately rushed.
“In terms of bilateral cooperation, it was a monumental failure. There was no preparedness on the part of the Nigerian government for any talks with their counterparts,” Metuh said.
Mr. Metuh deemed the President’s trip to Washington a “thank you visit” that was merely a token of gratitude to the United States for its commitment to assisting Nigeria with issues like fighting insurgency. He also criticized President Buhari for not getting any concrete agreements done during the trip.
“The delegation was unprepared for that trip. They should have waited and found out the policy of the [US] government and known exactly what the requirements were for a bilateral agreement with the United States,” Metuh said.
He also attacked President Buhari on his recent selection for director of the State Security Services, Lawal Daura. He questioned Mr. Daura’s decision to arrest PDP members.
“The Director of SSS that was appointed is a member of the APC. The SSS is like the FBI. It’s not for political party members. It has never happened in any democracy in the world,” he said.
Mr. Metuh also pointed out that “one of the first acts of the SSS was to arrest people and indicting INEC State commissioners in Rivers and Akwa Ibom,” which are both PDP States.
The National Publicity Secretary also spoke candidly about corruption within the PDP. He said, “there is no party or political group in this world where you will not find people who are corrupt, and our party is not an exception.”
He added that “if people are corrupt, arrest them. But don’t be corrupting the entire political space with ‘PDP is corrupt’. That’s a diversion and a distraction.”
Mr. Metuh concluding by suggesting that the Buhari administration are involved in “political lynching” by “painting everyone that works with PDP as corrupt.”