THE presidential candidate of ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, Bola Tinubu, yesterday, clashed with The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, counterpart, Atiku Abubakar, over the raging scarcity of fuel and new Naira notes.
While the APC Presidential Campaign Council warned Atiku and PDP against creating a rift between President Muhammadu Buhari and Tinubu over the fuel and new Naira notes scarcity issue, the Atiku-Okowa presidential campaign and PDP advised Tinubu to leave them out of his misfortunes.
The APC PCC asked the opposition PDP and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar not to get high on its own smoke, warning that no political blackmail and attempt to create a conflict between Tinubu and his long-term ally, President Buhari can succeed.
According to the APC PCC, Atiku and his party have been labouring to twist statements made by Tinubu on the scarcity of fuel and the newly redesigned Naira notes.
Mr. Bayo Onanuga, Director, Media and Publicity at the APC PCC, in a statement, said Nigerians should no longer be in doubt about those working in cahoots with Fifth Columnists to inflict avoidable pains on them for a sinister political end.
“No sooner than Bola Ahmed Tinubu empathised with the Nigerian people facing the dual crises of fuel and new Naira notes scarcity, than the opposition PDP and the Atiku camp issued a knee-jerk response, derailing from the issues, distorting Asiwaju’s statement and trying, in vain, to create a wedge between our presidential candidate and President Muhammadu Buhari.
“When the guilty are afraid of being uncovered, they try to push back with red-herring For the records, Tinubu during APC campaign rally at Abeokuta on Wednesday, in his statement, did not mention, blame or accuse President Muhammadu Buhari of the current challenges in the country.
“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”, he stated.
The statement noted that in recent days, many Automated Teller Machines ATMs are either not working or when working, are dispensing the old notes, just a few days before the January 31 deadline.
“Similarly, 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,” he stated.
The council queried how an advisory genuinely made by Tinubu to protect and create goodwill for the government of his party has suddenly become an attack, except “in the jaundiced view of the PDP”.
Leave us out of your misfortunes, Atiku/Okowa Campaign tells Tinubu
Countering, the Atiku/Okowa Presidential Campaign Organization advised Tinubu and the APC PCC to leave the PDP campaign out of his manifest problems with President Buhari which found expression in his continued vitriolic attacks on the person of President.
The PDP Campaign in a statement by its Chief Spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan, said it was indeed pathetic that in less than 24 hours after Tinubu stood on the public stage at his presidential rally in Abeokuta, Ogun State, to accuse the Buhari administration of creating fuel scarcity and redesigning the naira to scuttle the 2023 election, he is turning around to blame the PDP for his woes.
Ologbondiyan said: “Is it not strange that Asiwaju Tinubu wants the world to believe that his caustic remarks against Buhari were intended for Atiku Abubakar and the PDP when neither Atiku nor PDP is involved in the monetary policies or the failure to arrest the horrifically unending fuel crisis?”
“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 realised 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.”
