… As Burson-Marsteller Confirms Engagement By APC
SAN FRANCISCO, July 20, (THEWILL) –The All Progressives Party (APC), Nigeria’s main opposition party, which hired foreign public relations company, Burson Marsteller, is indeed a co-founder of the Bring Back Our Girls movement, the PR giant confirmed over the weekend.
The revelation counters APC’s repeated denials that it had no hand in the formation or operations of the Bring Back Our Girls movement, a group pressing the federal government to do more to free the over 230 schoolgirls forcefully abducted by the Boko Haram in Chibok, Borno State, about three months ago.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) controlled Nigerian government, which has had spats with the Bring Back Our Girls movement, has severally accused the APC of hijacking and using the movement as a political weapon to harass and embarrass government over the unfortunate abductions.
A weekend news report in The Hill, a Washington DC based newspaper, that covers the US congress, said Burson-Marsteller also confirmed that it was also hired by the APC, which is presently battling allegations that its leaders are sympathetic to the Boko Haram, an Islamic terrorist group operating mainly in northern Nigeria, to arrange a single meeting with unidentified persons in the Obama administration in Washington D.C.
“The firm was originally approached to support a one-off visit to Washington, D.C. by the co-founder of the ‘Bring Back Your [sic] Girls’ campaign and other APC officials. But the visit was called off,” a spokeswoman from Burson-Marsteller wrote in an email.
We are in the process of de-registering with FARA [the Foreign Agents Registration Act], the PR firm said according to the newspaper, confirming THEWILL’s earlier report that the APC paid the PR firm $100, 000 for the botched meeting.
Mr. Lai Mohammed, APC’s National Publicity Secretary did not respond to our calls as at the time of filing this report.
