Barely 38 days to the presidential election scheduled for
February 25, both camps of the All Progressives Congress, APC, and the Peoples
Democratic Party, PDP, candidates, Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar,
respectively, have continued to trade words.
The attacks heightened over the week, with each calling for
the arrest and disqualification of the other over allegations of graft,
contrary to the peace accord signed by the respective presidential candidates
ahead of political campaigns.
Recall that at the commencement of political campaign
season, presidential candidates and the national chairman of their respective
parties were made to sign a peace accord committing themselves to a peaceful
campaign for the 2023 election. The signing was organised by the National Peace
Committee in Abuja.
Recall that some of the candidates that signed the accord were Peter Obi
of the Labour Party, LP, Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria Peoples Party,
NNPP, and Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
However, the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC,
candidate, Bola Tinubu, was absent but his running mate, Kashim Shettima, stood
in for him.
Tinubu’s camp threw the first salvo last week when he called
on Nigerians to worry about Atiku’s health and credibility and not his, adding
that he (Atiku) must come clean on issues regarding his health and corruption
allegations.
The Director, Media and Publicity of Tinubu, Shettima
Presidential Campaign Council, PCC, Bayo Onanuga, who disclosed this in a
statement, said Atiku ought to have stepped down from the race because he was
bound to lose again.
“It is time for Atiku Abubakar, the 76-year-old presidential
candidate of the PDP, to come clean over two issues clouding his campaign: his
health status and his scandalous confession of how he colluded with his former
boss, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo to fleece the Nigerian treasury, using the
special purpose vehicles after he became Vice-President in 1999.
“We have it on good authority that Atiku indeed fell ill
while missing on the field. He was indeed in the UK for some medical help,
though handlers camouflage that he was there on the invitation of some British
officials at Whitehall, in a mimic of the earlier visit of the APC rival,
Asiwaju Tinubu,” the statement partly read.
While countering the allegations and attack by Tinubu, the
Atiku, Okowa Campaign Organisation said he (Tinubu) had no moral standing to
put to disrepute the impeccable character and integrity of Atiku.
In a statement issued by the spokesman of the campaign
organisation, Kola Ologbodiyan, he said his principal (Atiku) had refrained
from Tinubu’s appalling health issues before the ignoble public dance of the
Tinubu/Shettima Campaign.
“The Atiku/Okowa Campaign Organisation mocks the wobbly,
wonky and narcotic-devastated presidential candidate of the APC, Asiwaju
Tinubu, over his failed attempt to impute illness on the healthy and energetic
presidential candidate of the PDP, Atiku Abubakar.
“The campaign also describes as ludicrous the failed attempt
by Tinubu, the famed Lagos property stripper, who has gained notoriety as
corruption personified and the living example of the artful dodger, to impugn
the impeccable character and integrity of the incoming peoples’ President,
Atiku,” Ologbodiyan said.
But not yet done with the verbal tirade, over the week, the
spokesman for the APC Presidential Campaign Council, PCC, who also serves as
the current Minister of State for Labour, Productivity and Employment, Festus
Keyamo, returned fireworks from Tinubu’s camp.
Keyamo said Tinubu’s campaign council has forwarded a
petition to the anti-financial crime agencies – the Code of Conduct Bureau,
CCB, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, and the Independent
Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission, ICPC, seeking the
arrest and prosecution of the PDP candidate, Atiku.
He further disclosed that he had given a 72-hour ultimatum
to the anti-graft agencies to “arrest/invite, interrogate and prosecute Atiku,
failing which he said he would go to the courts to cause the agencies to act.”
Tinubu’s camp, speaking through the PCC at its headquarters
in Abuja, with the full complement of his media directorate, also queried the
sources of wealth of both Atiku and Obasanjo, his erstwhile principal.
The PCC also played a two-minute recorded voice call
purported to be a conversation between one Messrs Achimugu and Atiku bordering
on allegations of corrupt practices.
The Campaign Council alleged that Atiku had committed a
Breach of the Code of Conduct Act, Criminal Breach of Trust, Conspiracy, and
Money Laundering.
But while countering the allegations, the PDP dismissed
Tinubu’s calls and allegations against its presidential candidate. It described
them as simulated allegations and attempts to divert public attention from the
issues affecting Nigerians.
“It is indeed ironic that an embattled Tinubu, who is
beleaguered by uncountable cases of fraudulent activities, including perjury,
forgery, treasury looting, corruption and narcotic-related conviction can attempt
to impugn on the unimpeachable integrity of the PDP Presidential Candidate,”
its National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba alleged in a statement.
The spokesman of the Atiku, Okowa Presidential Campaign,
Kola Ologbondiyan, also in a statement issued in Abuja on Monday, demanded the
immediate arrest and questioning of Tinubu for his alleged formation of a
uniformed gang of thugs code-named “Jagaban Army” for the sole purpose of
committing an electoral heist.
“The Jagaban Army, which is apparently set up to disrupt the
2023 general elections and raid polling units for votes on behalf of APC
Presidential candidate, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is a direct affront to the
Nigeria Armed Forces and other security agencies, as well as an assault on the sovereignty
of our nation.
“The notion of Jagaban Army is a ploy to bring hoodlums,
thugs and gangsters together under cover of the APC and turn them into an
official militia that will be used to unleash mayhem on the day of the
election,” Ologbondiyan said.
Meanwhile, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria
(HURIWA), on Tuesday, slammed Atiku and his counterpart, Tinubu, over engaging
in campaigns of calumny against each other.
HURIWA’s National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, in a
statement, said both candidates are two sides of the same coin since both sides
are claiming that their opponent has been found to have allegedly committed the
same offence of money laundering they are accusing each other of.
“The case of APC and PDP is very laughable. It is because
both Atiku and Tinubu are accusing each other of the same offences that they
allegedly said each other committed.
“At least, a spokesman for Tinubu’s campaign and serving
minister, Festus Keyamo, confirmed that the APC presidential candidate
forfeited $460,000 in one of the 10 US banks linked to him and that he
‘mistakenly’ stayed in the same house as drug barons,” Onwubiko said.
Speaking concerning the verbal war between the duo, the
spokesman for Peter Obi, Datti Baba-Ahmed Campaign Organisation, Yunusa Tanko
said if it were to be in a sane society, the two candidates would not have the
moral standing to run for election.
Tanko said it is only in Nigeria that you will see such a
heavy accusation with proof into the public domain, yet shamelessly people
would still be willing to run for election.
He further urged Nigerians to vote out those who have put
the country in a perpetual poverty by voting for the Labour Party presidential
candidate, Peter Obi.
“I watched some of these interviews and my system usually
gets upset. In a normal sane society, these two characters do not have the
moral standing to run for election in Nigeria.
“It is only in Nigeria that you will see such a catastrophic
accusation with proof into the public domain, yet shamelessly people are still
willing to run for election and some are even thinking about the situation of
even voting for such an individual. It is so demeaning and so embarrassing.
“I will only call on Nigerians to look at the credibility,
character, consistency and compassion of Peter Obi, to please use their power
of voting to do what we call simultaneous equation by eliminating those who
have put us into a perpetual poverty and vote them out of power and vote for
Peter Obi.
“That is the only thing I can tell Nigerians because I don’t
have the power, my only vote cannot bring Peter Obi. I can only use my mouth to
advocate for Nigerians to ensure that they vote for Peter Obi, at least to
serve as a deterrent to those who feel they can hold Nigerians captive because
of their personal greed, their interest and their corrupt tendencies because
they want to continue to perpetuate themselves into power,” Tanko said.
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