The Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, has urged his All Progressives Congress (APC) counterpart, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to leave me out of his plot to blackmail President Muhammadu Buhari.
The former vice president asked Tinubu not to drag him into his alleged feud with Buhari, which resulted in his open condemnation of the President’s monetary policy on redesigned Naira notes and his handling of the fuel scarcity rocking the nation.
Recall that speaking on Wednesday during the APC presidential campaign in Abeokuta, Ogun State, Tinubu claimed that there were plans to sabotage the 2023 elections and his success in the forthcoming polls.
Tinubu cited the lingering fuel crisis and naira redesign by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) as part of the plot to scuttle the poll and his expected victory.
Reacting, the flagbearer of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, and the spokesman for the PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation, Kola Ologbondiyan, said Tinubu was using the problems as an excuse for his imminent defeat.
Firing back, Tinubu, through the Director of Media and Publicity, Bayo Onanuga, said he was only drawing Buhari’s attention to saboteurs possibly working in cahoots with the PDP.
Onanuga stated that no political blackmail and attempt by the PDP campaign to create a conflict between Tinubu and Buhari, his long-term ally, could succeed.
Spokesperson of the Atiku/Okowa Campaign Organization, Kola Ologbondiyan, while reacting to Tinubu’s reaction to an earlier comment by the Atiku campaign organisation, described as pathetic Tinubu’s attempt to turn around to blame the PDP for his woes less than 24 hours after he stood on the public stage at his presidential campaign rally to accuse the Buhari administration of sabotage.
Ologbondiyan said, “It is important to remind Asiwaju Tinubu that in accusing the “powers that be” of creating fuel scarcity and hoarding the naira to truncate the election, he knew that President Buhari is the Minister of Petroleum Resources and that all agencies of government in charge of prospecting and distribution of petroleum resources are under his (Buhari) office.
“Asiwaju also knew that President Buhari approved the redesigning of the naira and that issues of distribution of the naira notes are vested on the APC-controlled Federal Government and not on the PDP.
“It is therefore clear that Asiwaju’s verbal assaults against President Buhari is the official position of his confused, disoriented and disorganized Campaign Organization.
“It is noteworthy that having come to the conclusion, by himself, that he does not enjoy the support of President Buhari, having realized that his campaign is now falling apart with its leaders leaving in droves given his manifest rejection by Nigerians, Asiwaju Tinubu now seeks to blackmail the President and incite his followers to violence, with the view of truncating the electoral process and blaming it on President Buhari.
“This further explains why Asiwaju Tinubu had set up the dangerous militia group, code-named the Jagaban Army, which is reportedly being trained and equipped to unleash violence on Nigerians and truncate the electoral process, having realized that there is no way he can win in a free, fair and credible election.
“Asiwaju Tinubu had always sought to exonerate himself and blame only President Buhari for the failure of the APC administration in spite of the fact that he (Tinubu) is behind the corruption ridden policies of the APC government that have brought untold hardships on Nigerians in the last seven and half years.
“His verbal somersaults within a space of less than 24 hours presents him as a person that must not be entrusted with power.
“Since Asiwaju Tinubu wants Nigerians to believe that he is fighting for their course, he will need to respond to some of these troubling questions;
“What has he done as a loaf of bread which sold at N300 in 2015 now sells for N1000 under the APC administration which he claimed to have brought into power?
“What has he done to encourage or alleviate the sufferings of Nigerians as kerosene which was being sold at N150 in 2015, is now selling for over N1000.
“What advice has Asiwaju Tinubu given to the Federal Government to save the situation as a bag of rice which sold for N8000 in 2015 went up to N46,000 under his APC?”
He stated that Tinubu’s politics had always been about “self and the cabal” who never cared for Nigerians or the success of the government he claimed to have brought to power.
Ologbondiyan urged the former Lagos State governor to leave the PDP and its Presidential Candidate, Atiku Abubakar, alone and face his self-inflicted woes.
He said the Atiku/Okowa Campaign will not be distracted by Tinubu but will continue to focus on rallying with Nigerians in their determination to vote for Atiku as the next President of Nigeria.
