The presidential campaign council of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has accused the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of twisting the comment made by the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr. Bola Tinubu on fuel scarcity and naira redesign to mean that he (Tinubu) was targeting President Muhammadu Buhari.
Recall that NewsGazette had earlier reported that Tinubu said during his campaign in Abeokuta, Ogun State on Wednesday the lingering fuel crisis as well as naira redesign by the Central Bank of Nigeria was part of the strategy to scuttle his victory at the February 25 presidential poll.
“They don’t want this election to hold. They want to scuttle it. They have started coming up with the issue of ‘no fuel’. Don’t worry, if there is no fuel, we will trek to cast the vote. If you like to increase the pump price of fuel, hide the fuel or change the ink on the naira notes, we will win the election.
“They are full of mischief, they can say there is no fuel, they have started talking about fuel scarcity, forget about it, be rest assured. I, Asiwaju will end fuel scarcity.
“If you like to change the ink in the naira note, you can spend lavishly and become a debtor, you will be shocked, we win the election…. W will take over the government from them; they are traitors that want to wrestle the government from us, they have never done it before,” he declared.
Reacting to Tinubu’s outburst, the presidential council of the PDP said blackmailing Buhari would not save Tinubu from defeat at the presidential poll.
However, the director, media and publicity of APC presidential campaign council, Mr. Bayo Onanuga, countered that Tinubu targeted Buhari in his remarks at the Abeokuta electioneering.
Onanuga said in a statement on Thursday (yesterday) said the PDP took the remarks out of context to create a wedge between Tinubu and Buhari.
He added that the PDP and the fifth columnists were the ones bent on inflicting avoidable pains on hapless Nigerians to achieve a political end.
“Atiku’s camp is issuing a knee-jerk response, derailing from the issues, distorting Tinubu’s views at the Abeokuta rally, to create a wedge between him and President Muhammadu Buhari.
“When the guilty are afraid of being uncovered, they try to push back with red-herring.
“For the records, Asiwaju Tinubu during the APC campaign rally at Abeokuta on Wednesday, in his statement, did not mention, blame or accuse President Muhammadu Buhari for the current challenges in the country.
“Asiwaju Tinubu was only adverting the government’s attention to the sabotage being carried out by some Fifth Columnists in the system, possibly working in cahoots with the PDP.
“The CBN officials, including Governor Godwin Emefiele, have said many times that enough new naira notes have been supplied to the banks, yet our people complain that they have not been able to get the new notes.
“In recent days, many ATMs are either not working or when working they are dispensing the old notes, just a few days to the January 31 deadline.
“Similarly, Asiwaju Tinubu is aware of the salutary efforts by President Buhari to end the fuel queues, by chairing a 14-man panel. Yet the queues and agony continue.
“For a presidential candidate, who cares about the suffering of our people, he has a duty to warn the government that its efforts to make life better for Nigerians are being sabotaged on several fronts.
“Our presidential candidate only re-echoed what is well known and acknowledged, even by President Buhari himself at different fora: That there are Fifth Columnists in and outside of government who often throw spanners in the works against good intentions and programmes of the government.
“How does an advisory genuinely made by Asiwaju Tinubu to protect and create goodwill for the government of his party become an attack? It can only be so in the jaundiced view of the PDP.
“It is in this light we found amusing the directionless Atiku Campaign’s bagful of mischief in their hurriedly put-together press statement meant to gain shameful mileage from the suffering of Nigerians.
“PDP and Atiku should remember not to get high on their own smoke. No political blackmail and an attempt to create a conflict between Tinubu and his long-term ally, President Muhammadu Buhari can succeed.
“We have bad news for Atiku and his handlers: their latest mischief is therefore doomed to fail.
“The Atiku rudderless campaign, always seeking cheap shots and easy ways has again woefully attempted to make a mountain out of a molehill from the comments made by Asiwaju Tinubu in Abeokuta.
“As a patriotic and compassionate leader, Asiwaju Tinubu will not stomach seeing ordinary Nigerians being made to face excessive difficulties over mundane issues due to activities of petrol and currency hoarders.
“As a proud leader of the APC, Asiwaju Tinubu would not also look indifferent as his party and the government get dirty with a black brush at a critical time like this, whether he is a candidate or not,” Onanuga said.
