Youth leader saga: Jalo is 52, not 49 – PDP tells APC

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has expressed shock over a statement by the All Progressives Congress (APC) regarding the actual age of its National Youth Leader, Ibrahim Jalo.

The PDP National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, in a statement on Tuesday, said it was disheartening that the APC had refused to shed its unnecessary penchant for lies, even in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

Metuh said records available to the ruling party indicated that Jalo was 52 years, and not 49, as claimed by the opposition party.

The ruling party's spokesperson was reacting to a statement by the National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, that Jalo was not up to 53 years as being claimed.

Mohammed had said, 'We have been able to confirm that the APC Youth Leader, Jalo was actually born on the 13th of April 1971, and that puts his age at 43, and not 49, 52 or 53, as being falsely circulated.

'This is not to say a 43-year-old man is ideal to be our youth leader but simply to put the records straight, while the party leadership continues to listen to the voices of concern by our teeming youths.'

But Metuh insisted in the statement that, 'It is a public knowledge that Ibrahim Dasuki Jalo contested the Gombe/Kwame/Funakaye Federal Constituency seat in the House of Representatives in 2011 during which he declared his age to be 49 years. The records are there and they speak for themselves.

'If Ibrahim Dasuki Jalo was 49 years in 2011, it naturally follows that he is 52 at present, for which he should be grateful to God. It is therefore clear that the statement by the APC declaring him to be 43 years is false.

'Whilst we concede that the APC has the right to select a person of any age for any position within their fold, including a man of 52 as the national youth leader, we are however shocked that they chose to lie over an issue as ordinary as the age of a national officer.'

Metuh said in lying over the age of its national officer, the APC had shown that 'it has little regard for integrity and that its statements cannot be trusted.'

He finally advised the APC, now under a new leadership, to imbibe the culture of integrity and honesty, especially as Nigerians deserve to know the truth and the correct state of facts always. - Punch.