Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola has debunked the claim by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the Southwest that the Osun State Government was sending pupils to Cuba for paramilitary training.
He challenged the PDP to prove the allegation.
In a statement yesterday, the governor’s spokesman, Mr. Semiu Okanlawon, said: “The allegation that Aregbesola is sending pupils to Cuba for military training in furtherance of a secessionist agenda is a cheap lie.
“Can the PDP deny that Nigeria has diplomatic ties with Cuba? What is the essence of diplomatic ties if not for the economic, cultural and political development of the associating countries?
“Nigeria, like many other countries, has been sending people to Cuba. If Osun’s decision to send some pupils to Cuba this year is a threat to PDP, the ruling party has total control of the immigration and the intelligence gathering apparatus, so it can easily find out if there is anything clandestine about the trip and expose it to the world.
“But because there is nothing to expose, the PDP has intensified its lies just to misinform Nigerians and confuse issues, with the hope that this would redeem its battered image in the Southwest.
“The PDP should either present its evidence or keep quiet for ever.
Nigerians have had enough of its cheap lies.”
Also yesterday, the Nigerian Human Rights Community (NHRC) condemned the PDP’s .
In a statement by its Deputy Coordinator, Mr. Mathew Nwokocha, the umbrella body of 65 civil society groups in Nigeria described the claim as “a disgraceful lie and a primitive way to play politics”.
NHRC said: “We are compelled to respond to this claim, because for over half a century, the federal, state and local governments have been sending people to Cuba for training in the health sector and other areas of human endeavours, of which Cubans have the expertise.
“Yearly, members of the Nigerian Human Rights Community are sent abroad, including Cuba, especially on May 1, during the Workers’ Day celebration.
“This year’s May Day event in Cuba is actually drawing a large number of Nigerians, including federal and state government officials, and several pupils, mostly from the Northern part of the country.
“The statement credited to the PDP portrays the party as hopeless, desperate, bewildered and anxious to do anything, including shooting itself in the feet, if only to draw attention and at all cost portray its Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) foe in bad light.”
The group said the greatest threat to Nigeria’s unity is not pupils visiting Cuba for May Day, but a combination of bad governance and the insurgencies of the Boko Haram sect and the Niger-Delta militants.
It said: “It is a dishonor that the statement of the PDP was silent on this world acclaimed sources of instability in Nigeria. We advise political parties to wage their campaigns on the truth and noble principles that will deepen democratic values and culture, instead of aiming to ride to power through cheap lies, deceit and unending deception.
“We are not members of any political party, but we urge the Southwest PDP to imbibe ethics in its campaigns. We wonder what future we are leaving for our children when political leaders become liars to score political goals, even when the tactics they employ continuously set them against the people they are expected to protect.”
The group urged all states sending labour delegates and pupils to Cuba for the May Day celebration not to be deterred by the PDP’s “propaganda”, but to sustain the good relationship between Cuba and Nigeria, which has lasted for over half a decade and has been constantly nurtured through bilateral exchanges, such as the May Day visits of Nigerian students.
TheNation