PDP’s suspends its Twitter account over “embarrassing tweets”

0

On Sunday, the Peoples Democratic Party’s,​ Twitter handle sent out a series of tweets in which it took responsibility for all that has gone “wrong and bad in Nigeria in the last 16 years.” Today, the party has claimed that its account was hacked and that the tweets do not represent the views of its leadership.

Furthermore, the party said that many times in the course of the campaign, the media reported certain statements and opinions by some PDP members as the official positions of the party.

According to Olisa Metuh, the publicity secretary of the party, that trend has to stop as 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 the party in line with the relevant provisions of the PDP constitution.

“For purposes of clarity, this directive does not in any way affect the inalienable constitutionally guaranteed rights of our members as free citizens to hold and air opinions but such personal opinion must not in any way be rendered or reported as the official position of the PDP,” Metuh said.

“Consequently, media houses, particularly the electronic media and the civil society should note that only authorized persons should be invited to speak or stand in for the PDP for interviews, debates, talk shows or any other media appearance whatsoever.”

Concerning the tweets on Sunday, Metuh said that the party could not have owned up to the failings in Nigeria with its robust record of achievements in all sectors of Nigeria’s national life.

Metuh said that “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.”

Metuh said the decision is pursuant to determination of the party’s leadership to rebuild and reposition it, instil discipline, check unnecessary divergences and put the PDP on a strong footing to regain power in 2019.