The Buhari Media Organisation, BMO, has accused the Vice-Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Peter Obi of reeling out false figures throughout the Vice-Presidential debate held on Friday. The group which highlighted some of the false figures reeled out by Peter Obi said the politician has a penchant for cooking up figures and twisting facts.
The statement signed by its Chairman, Niyi Akinsiju and Secretary Cassidy Madueke reads in part;
“From the outset, it was clear that Obi was out to impress his gullible political base but he did not reckon with the fact that majority of Nigerians cannot be easily be fooled at a time information can easily be cross-checked
“Perhaps his biggest lie on the night that was easily debunked by knowledgeable Nigerians was his claim of two million vehicles on Nigerian roads. Even without the benefit of data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), an average car part dealer in Gudu, Abuja or Idumota, Lagos knew he was lying.
“An NBS fact sheet that has for sometime been in the public domain shows that the country has a total vehicle population of about 11.5 million as at the third quarter of 2017 so where did Obi gets his own data?”
“Some of the lies couched as facts by the PDP chieftain according to the online newspaper include his claim that Nigeria has fallen on the global competitive index from 124 to 127
“The true position from the 2018 World Economic Forum (WEF) report is that the country rose on the index by 10 places
“Peter Obi also argued that Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) for 2015 was $21 billion while it fell to $12 billion in 2017. Again he lied just as he did with his claim that African trade is less than 9 percent
“Data from AfrieximBank indicate that intra-Africa trade is around 15 percent while Brooking Institution puts it at 18 percent
“These are just some of the lies that the man PDP elements dressed up as an economic expert attempted to force down the throats of Nigerians as facts and figures.”
