Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has warned supporters of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, from disrupting proceedings at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal.
Atiku gave the warning in a statement to OsunDailyNG on Sunday signed by his Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu.
According to Shaibu, the warning had become imperative following the sponsored protest that Tinubu’s supporters staged at the European Union head office in Abuja after the release of the EU Observer Mission report which revealed how the election failed the credibility test.
Recall that the EU report had scored the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) low over the handling of the election. However, Tinubu’s allies, including his spokesman, Dele Alake; former Minister Festus Keyamo; and Femi Fani-Kayode, who had also been implicated in the report, rejected the findings.
A group of APC supporters subsequently stormed the EU headquarters and were given full police protection to carry out the demonstration.
Reacting, Shaibu stated, “We seize this opportunity to send a warning to the Tinubu government and its minions against disrupting the proceedings of the election tribunal as they have shown a clear disdain for the truth by picketing the EU office.
“Recall that in 1999, when the late legendary lawyer, Chief Gani Fawehinmi, sued Tinubu for school certificate forgery, thugs were sponsored to cause protests outside the court house. Similarly, when Tinubu was facing charges before the Code of Conduct Tribunal, thugs were similarly sponsored to protest at the trial, all in a bid to intimidate the judiciary.
“We find it curious that the same security agencies which have been issuing statements barring protests were curiously available to provide cover for sponsored pro-government protesters to picket the EU office. We sound a note of warning to the security agencies to be on the alert as the tribunal proceedings wind down. The world is watching.”
Shaibu lamented that in just 40 days of Tinubu’s administration, poverty had deepened, and inflation had skyrocketed.
He added that the poverty had made innocent Nigerians susceptible to manipulation, and this was being exploited by the APC.
Shaibu stated, “Today, food has become a luxury. The purchasing power of the people has dropped no thanks to an unplanned petrol subsidy removal, which was not accompanied by any form of palliatives. With just N1,000, any riffraff on the street could be handed a t-shirt and placard to engage in protests they know nothing about.
“This is how low Nigeria has sunk low since Tinubu took over the reins of government.”
Shaibu added that Tinubu was running a government of hypocrisy by attributing the APC’s failures to select scapegoats while failing to point fingers at former President Muhammadu Buhari
“Tinubu blamed Godwin Emefiele for the country’s economic woes and ordered his detention while he continues to shower praises on the man who not only appointed Emefiele but gave him a national award. This is the height of hypocrisy,” Atiku’s aide said.
He said that rather than acknowledge that the election was flawed, Tinubu continued to grandstand, thereby infuriating Nigerians.
Atiku’s aide stated, “No one needs to be told that the 2023 presidential election was one of the worst ever conducted in Nigeria’s history. The 2007 election was similarly bad, but at least, the key recipient, President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, admitted the poll was flawed and immediately kicked off electoral reforms. However, Tinubu, by rejecting the EU report, has ruled out the possibility of electoral reform.
“Tinubu is the opposite of a statesman. He claims the 2023 election is the best Nigeria has had since 1999 and continues to draw parallels between it and the epochal June 12, 1993 election by constantly mentioning the name of MKO Abiola and Hope 93.
“This is the height of deception. MKO’s victory was spick and span. MKO Abiola represented the hope of a generation while Tinubu stole the hope of a generation. Tinubu’s renewed hope is nothing but renewed hopelessness, a continuation of Buhari’s eight years of monumental failure. It is simply, as the youths say, ‘renewed shege’. We ask Nigerians to tarry a while as we wait for the judiciary to correct the evil that INEC imposed on over 200 million people.”
