APC does not own a radio station – Lai Mohammed

Few days to the conduct of the March 28 presidential elections across the country, the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Nigeria has dismissed claims by the ruling Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) that the APC owns a radio station broadcasting without rights.

“We don’t have any radio station anywhere and since the PDP is the one making such allegations they may perhaps be privy to what others don’t know,” the spokesman of the party, Mr Lai Mohammed, disclosed to newsmen on Friday.

The Director General of the President Goodluck Jonathan Campaign Organisation, Mr Femi Fani Kayode, had asked the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission to stop the ‘illegal operations’ of APC radio, which he accused the opposition party of running.

At a press conference in Abuja on March 19, Mr Fani Kayode alleged that the station’s focus was to incite Nigerians against the Federal Government.

He accused the former Ekiti State Governor, Kayode Fayemi and the APC leader, Bola Tinubu, of being the brains behind the APC radio.

But Mr Mohammed stressed that it was the responsibility of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) to track illegal radio stations in Nigeria.

“Where is the information about the Radio Change.

“We in the APC know nothing about this radio station. If anybody should know, I think I should know.

“They should ask Fani-Kayode and the NBC who set up this radio. Since the National Broadcasting Commission is an organisation of the Federal Government it should be able to track such radio stations and tell Nigerians where it is located. Where is it? We have no hand in it. We have nothing to do with it. We do not know about its existent.

“Their desperation knows no bound. They are looking for all excuses to go and arrest our leaders. But they will fail woefully. They have lost this election,” he said.

The party, however, said the radio station allegation was a distraction the PDP was peddling to run away from issues.

“It is a clear show of jitters about its imminent loss in the March 28 elections,” Mr Mohammed said.

The PDP had asked the NBC to set its house in order while ensuring that its rules are followed. It requested that the Commission should use all means available to stop the illegal radio from operating and if necessary block its illegal operations.

“The objective of the radio station is to serve as a propaganda tool to fight the PDP-led government after the APC loses the elections on March 28,” Fani-Kayode told reporters.