Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday attributed the loss of President Goodluck Jonathan in the last presidential election to the hate campaign embarked by his campaign organisation.

The National Working Committee (NWC) members of the party also refuted claim that the NWC members shared part of the presidential campaign funds among themselves, saying the body was not involved in the disbursement of cash for electioneering purpose.

It said that it should not be blamed for Jonathan’s defeat, as they did not play any significant part in the 2015 presidential campaign.

Mr. Olisa Metuh, PDP national publicity secretary, told reporters at a press conference that the president and his associates should not blame the party leadership for the loss of the presidency, as the PDP leadership was not in charge of the campaign.

Metuh stated that “Our advice and suggestions were ignored. We cannot be held responsible for the failure. “Let me say this. In 2003, President Obasanjo ran an election against Odumegwu Ojukwu in the South- East. In 2007, Yar’Adua ran election against Ojukwu. I can tell you, if PDP had engaged in name calling or abuse Ojukwu in anyway, PDP would have lost the elections in the South- East,”

He blamed the poor performance of the party in the North to the hate campaign adopted and executed by the PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation against the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Major General Muhammadu Buhari.

The PDP presidential campaign organisation had devoted more time to running down Buhari than selling the president.

Despite the party’s pledge to embark on issuebased campaign, the focus was on Buhari’s health, certificate and his alleged role in encouraging graft in the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF).

Metuh also said the NWC members had no knowledge of how the money voted for the PDP presidential campaign was spent.

He, however, explained that the N30 million allegedly paid to NWC members, with the approval of Jonathan, was meant for furniture, medical and other backlog of allowances accruable to the members for the last three years.

According to him, PDP generated about N9 billion from the sale of Expression of Interest and Nomination Forms to aspirants to various offices on the platform of the party last year.

Out of this, the party donated N500 million to the national presidential campaign fund last December and gave out N100 million to each of the 29 gubernatorial candidates on the party. “We sponsored our House of Assembly candidates.

The money was passed through the governors or through ministers and gubernatorial candidates in states where PDP has no sitting governor,” he said. Metuh added that the party got approval from Jonathan for all its spending and expressed readiness of the NWC to make public its account.

“For the avoidance of doubt, we wish to state categorically that this national leadership has remained very transparent in all its dealings since coming into office.

No NWC member has been involved in any way in any sleaze or embezzlement of party funds. Also, no member of the NWC has ever been accused of embezzlement of funds in any ministry, department or agencies of government at any level whatsoever.

“We state clearly that we have not been given any money, rather this NWC generated billions of naira from the sale of forms from where we funded our candidates for governorship and state assembly elections in all the states of the federation in addition to funds released to key leaders, including NWC and BoT members to prosecute the campaigns in their various areas.

The NWC is willing and ready to make this account public in line with the freedom of information law”, he added.

He, however, said the party had resolved its differences following the in-tervention of Jonathan, the PDP governors and other key stakeholders of the party, including governors and legislators-elect.

Metuh added that PDP is joining forces with the NWC in the efforts to reengineer and rebuild the party and reposition to it to regain power in 2019. Part of the repositioning, he added, is the setting up of the PDP Post- Election Assessment Committee, which will be inaugurated today, to evaluate and assess the party’s performance in the general elections and make recommendations for the way forward.

“On this note, we wish to state clearly that there is no crisis in the national leadership of the PDP. The National Working Committee, under the chairmanship of Ahmadu Adamu Mu’azu, is duly elected and is fully in control of the administration of the party until the expiration of its tenure in March 2016 in line with the provisions of the constitution of our great party.

“We, therefore, urge all our members across the country to close ranks and work together with their leaders at all levels and make themselves partners in progress in the all important ongoing rebuilding process aimed at restoring the supremacy of the party and its glory as the pre-eminent party in Nigeria”, he stated.

On the crisis in the party over the call on the NWC members to quit to allow time for the reorganisation of PDP, Metuh said the matter had been resolved following the intervention of the president. He added that the president, at a meeting he chaired on Sunday, called all the parties to order.

“We are happy to announce that the leader of our party, President Jonathan, the PDP governors and other key stakeholders of our party, including governors and legislatorselect are deeply concerned about this development and have intervened to ensure the desired stability in our party,” he stated. Metuh was confident that with the resolution of the crisis, PDP’s chances of reclaiming the presidency in 2019 were brighter.