The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Presidential Campaign Council (PCC), on Sunday, reacted to the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu’s denial of a meeting in London with the five aggrieved PDP governors, referred to as G-5, describing it a barefaced lie.
PDP PCC, also on Sunday, called on Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike, to publicly apologise to former President Olusegun Obasanjo, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, and the family of the late Chief Anthony Anenih for saying Anenih asked Obasanjo to kneel before Atiku when they were in office.
The reactions came as Sokoto State Governor Aminu Tambuwal, weekend, reiterated that Atiku would reopen the country’s borders if elected president in next month’s presidential election.
Apparently worried by the reactions to his meeting with four of the five aggrieved PDP governors, Tinubu had denied meeting with the Wike-led group.
Some reports at the weekend had it that the G-5 PDP governors had finally decided to work for Tinubu as well as his counterpart in the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi. Some reports said the four governors, Wike, Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, Samuel Ortom of Benue State, and Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State, met with Tinubu in London.
However, inside sources had it that while Wike and Makinde decided to work for Tinubu, Ortom was too worried by the unintended consequences of such a move, which he feared might affect the governorship candidate of his party in Benue State.
But Ikpeazu and Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State were said to have agreed to work for the APC presidential candidate quietly for fear of repercussions in the South-east.
Nevertheless, they all allegedly foreclosed working for Atiku.
But Tinubu denied meeting with the governors.
However, in a statement on Sunday, Atiku’s Special Assistant, Public Communication, and member of the PDP PCC, Phrank Shaibu, accused Tinubu of lying that he never met the rebellious governors, when in actual fact he met them to fine tune a deal to undermine PDP.
Phrank said, incidentally, Wike, who was known for his bravado, had failed to deny ever meeting with Tinubu, saying, instead, “they said we had a meeting with so and so. What is your problem?”
The statement added, “I make bold to state that if the G-5 never met with Tinubu, Wike would have been the one to deny it.”
The statement said while the news of the meeting was trending, two spokesmen for the APC presidential campaign, Festus Keyamo and Femi Fani-Kayode, took to the social media to celebrate the support Tinubu would be getting from the G-5.
It revealed that on Facebook, Fani-Kayode had specifically stated, “The endorsement and declaration of support that Bola Ahmed Tinubu will get from at least six (not just five) governors from the PDP this January will finally put to rest the delusion that Atiku will stubbornly harbour about winning the 2023 presidential election.”
The statement wondered what those two were celebrating and gloating about if actually there was no meeting that resulted in some form of deal. “What was Keyamo and Fani Kayode celebrating if there was no deal?” the statement queried.
According to the statement, “It is funny that it took three whole days after reports of the meeting before Tinubu decided it was time to put out a statement denying it ever held. It is also awfully coincidental that the G-5 and Tinubu all decided to travel to London at the same time and departed at the same time with Tinubu proceeding to Saudi Arabia and the other governors returning to Nigeria.
“Incidentally, Tinubu had also in August denied plans of meeting the G-5, only for Wike to later issue a statement confirming that they, indeed, met with Tinubu and other candidates separately. Tinubu’s latest denial should, therefore, be discarded as another lie.
“For Nigerians who wonder why Tinubu would deny such a meeting ever held, the reason is because the details of the meeting are too messy and the APC candidates in the five states are fighting back.”
The statement noted that all the G-5 governors were on the ballot for the general elections except for Wike and, “there is a fight back from the APC governorship and National Assembly candidates from the affected states where the G-5 Governors hold sway.”
For instance, the statement explained, “In Oyo, Senator Teslim Folarin is reportedly angry at a proposed treacherous deal to trade off his mandate as the APC governorship candidate. The situation is not different in Abia, Enugu, Benue and, of course, Rivers State.
“This larcenous move exposes the nature of the man who wants to be the next president of Nigeria. Tinubu, a man who is yet to explain to Nigerians his ignoble role in the infamous heroin trafficking case, which led to his forfeiture of $460,000, is a treacherous man who is more of a dealer than a leader. He will trade off all his loyalists for power.
“This desperation was brought to the fore in 2011, when Tinubu removed the rug from under Nuhu Ribadu of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and made a deal with the federal government to ensure that President Goodluck Jonathan wins.”
The PDP PCC further noted, “All these machinations will end in failure for Tinubu, because Nigerians have decided that their future will not be put in the hands of a man who is willing to trade their destinies for a mere porridge or agbado (corn)? The truth is that no amount of horse-trading can make Nigerians forget the torture they have been subjected to in the last nearly eight years of the APC.
“Nigerians are far worse off than they were in 2015. The faces of frustrated motorists queuing to buy petrol during the Yuletide are a graphic reflection of life under the APC, where road travel to any part of the country has become a journey through the valley of the shadow of death.
“This Yuletide saw Nigerians starving, as the price of foodstuff has hit the roof with inflation at a staggering figure.
“In the last seven and a half years of the APC, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) spent a combined two years on strike, with innocent students paying for the bad governance and maladministration of the APC. According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), at least 133 million Nigerians live in abject poverty. That is more than the combined population of Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau, Gambia, Mauritania, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Togo, Benin, Guinea, Senegal and Mali, making Nigeria the poorest nation in the world.
“On the watch of the APC, violent and mindless killings have become commonplace. Nearly 5,000 Nigerians were killed in the first half of last year, the Nigerian Security Tracker operated by the Council on Foreign Relations stated.
“In Kaduna State, where the APC is fully in charge, bandits took over the international airport and bombed a train, kidnapping several passengers, who had to pay billions to secure their release. There were also attacks at a Catholic church in Ondo, where 40 worshippers were killed while at the Kuje Correctional Centre, many terrorists were released, with most of them still on the loose.
“The United States and other countries had to advise their citizens not to visit Abuja, because of the clear failure of the APC. Rather than apologise to Nigerians, the APC is now selling a false message of renewed hope through Tinubu, the party’s national leader. How can those who plunged us into the current mess be the solution to the same mess? Balderdash! The problems plaguing Nigeria will determine how citizens vote and not the political horse-trading of a ‘corn-man’”.
PDP to Wike: Apologise to Obasanjo, Atiku, Anenih’s Family
PDP PCC called on Wike to offer a public apology to Obasanjo, Atiku, and the late Chief Anthony Anenih for the comments that Anenih asked Obasanjo to kneel before Atiku, when they were in office.
In another statement demanding an open apology from Wike, Shaibu said, “In his futile bid to reinvent history, the governor of Rivers State, whose tenure will end in a matter of months, addressed the public telling unsubstantiated tales of what transpired during 2003 presidential election cycle.
“Suffice to say that Wike himself was nothing near the theater of events at the level of national politics at that time, but he nonetheless went ahead to fabricate stories that had been variously rendered by active participants whose account negate the impression that the Rivers helmsman desire to create.
“Whereas Wike demanded a video or photo evidence of him and his co-travellers with political opponents of the PDP during their inglorious London meeting, it would be nice to subject the same Wike to the same standard of proof in showing evidence of what happened between Atiku and Obasanjo in 2003.”
Atiku’s aide said Wike could not be rendering accounts of event that he was not an eye-witness to, and which he, at that time, was distant from the theater of happenings at national politics.
The statement further stated, “It is also shameful that Wike, in justifying his macabre conduct, seeks to desecrate the memory of the late Chief Tony Anenih. Chief Anenih remained a close ally of Atiku Abubakar up to his last moment.
“Beyond that, the relationship between the Anenih political dynasty and that of Atiku remains cordial till date. It is, therefore, deserving that Wike renders an apology to President Olusegun Obasanjo, Vice President Atiku and the Anenih family.
“The former president is a revered statesman and it is highly unworthy that Wike would make vile comments about his tenure as president and leader of the PDP, paint Vice president Atiku in borrowed robes and dance on the grave of Chief Tony Anenih.”
Tambuwal: Atiku to Reopen Nigeria’s Borders If Elected
Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal, reiterated that Atiku would reopen the country’s borders if elected president in next month’s election. Tambuwal, who is Director General of PDP Presidential Campaign Council, disclosed this at the weekend at the PDP campaign rally held in Illela Local Government Area of the state.
He said, “The PDP presidential candidate has better plans for the country. These include reopening of the nation’s borders, addressing challenges of insecurity and the provision of basic necessities of life for Nigerians,”
The governor added that his administration in the state had a lot of sympathy for the people of Illela, being among the worst hit areas by banditry.
In his remarks, the Director General, Sokoto Campaign Management Council, PDP, Alhaji Yusuf Sulaiman, asked the people of the area to elect continuity in governance by casting their votes for the PDP.
The PDP governorship candidate, Malam Sa’idu Umar, pledged to sustain the legacies of Tambuwal and initiate more developmental projects, if elected.
Chuks Okocha
Follow us on:
