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National leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has bemoaned the presentation of personal opinions of its party members as official positions on national issues, particularly during the 2015 election campaign.
It has therefore ordered that only statements from the National Chairman and the National Publicity Secretary or any other national officer of the party authorized by the National Working Committee should be regarded as the official position of its party.
In a statement by Olisa Metuh, National Publicity Secretary, said the party’s new media accounts were also hacked, resulting in the release of unauthorised statements, hence the party has decided to decommission the social media accounts.
The statement reads:
“The national leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) observed that in the course of the 2015 campaigns, personal positions and opinions of our party members were generally reported in many instances by the media as official positions of the PDP.
“We have also noted that some of our new media handles; our facebook and twitter accounts have been hacked resulting in series of unauthorized releases, with the latest being Sunday’s post quoting our party as accepting responsibility for failure in the last 16 years; a statement which could not have come from the PDP that has a robust record of achievements in all sectors of our national life within the period.
“However, now that the campaigns are over, we wish to notify the general public especially the media that henceforth only statements, utterances and positions of the National Chairman and the National Publicity Secretary or any other national officer of the party authorized by the National Working Committee shall be regarded and reported as the official position of our great party in line with the relevant provisions of the PDP constitution.
“For purposes of clarity, this directive does not in anyway affect the inalienable constitutionally guaranteed rights of our members as free citizens to hold and air opinions but such personal opinion must not in anyway be rendered or reported as the official position of the PDP.
“Furthermore, to halt the embarrassing trend in our social media handles, the party has decided to decommission our official twitter and facebook accounts for now, to pave way for proper overhauling of the system.
“The foregoing is pursuant to our determination to rebuild and reposition our great party, instill discipline in our fold, check unnecessary divergences and put the PDP on a strong footing to regain power in 2019.”
