•Tinubu unfit to lead Nigerians as president, PDP fires back
Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja
The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has called on the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, to come clean about his health and alleged corruption issues using Special Purpose Vehicles after he became Vice-President in 1999.
But in a swift response, the main opposition party declared the presidential candidate of APC, Senator Bola Tinubu, unfit to lead Nigerians as president.
The APC call came following the recent release of an audio clip by a whistleblower where allegations were made against Atiku
The Director of Media and Publicity of the APC Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) of the (PCC), Bayo Onanuga, in a statement issued yesterday, said if Atiku has some modicum of honour, he ought to have stepped down from the race.
He said: “It’s time for Atiku Abubakar, the 76 year-old presidential candidate of Peoples Democratic Party 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.
“If Atiku has some modicum of honour, he ought to have stepped down from the race that he is bound to lose again, following the release of his audio clip, in which he provides a vivid explanation into the modus operandi of his legendary corruption.”
Onanuga said since the revelation, there had been no notable response from Atiku’s camp about the disturbing revelation, except for a futile attempt to disown the whistleblower, Michael Achimugu, a media consultant to Atiku.
He noted that Nigerians are appalled that Atiku and PDP are so shameless that they have shrugged off the bombshell.
To this end, Onanuga implored Nigerians to hold Atiku to account over the shocking revelation by rejecting him at the polls in February.
He added: “Atiku is also not talking about his health status even when his hirelings daily make futile attempts to divert public attention to his main rival by cooking up lies upon lies. Whereas Atiku is the candidate that Nigerians should be sorely worried about.
“The lies of several years and the various diversionary tactics are no longer sustainable. Atiku’s edifice of lies is about to crash on him. The PDP presidential candidate is certainly not okay, the papering efforts notwithstanding.”
Onanuga stressed that eyebrows were raised when Atiku did not return to the country after the December holidays to continue his 5th campaign for Nigeria’s presidency.
He noted: “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, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
“Despite the efforts by his handlers to showcase Atiku as healthy and physically fit to endure the rigours of the presidential campaign, pictures from rallies have belied this. Campaign pictures sometimes showed him being helped to descend steps at stadia. Sometimes, he walked with apparent handicap, dragging his feet.”
Onanuga said a man who wants to rule Nigeria and wants Nigerians to repose some trust in him must immediately and honestly address the twin issues of his health and the alleged corruption levelled against him.
However, the PDP declared that Tinubu is unfit to lead over 200 million Nigerians as president.
The Spokesperson of the Atiku/Okowa Campaign Organisation, Kola Ologbondiyan, in a statement, said it was imperative to observe that its campaign had focused on issues and refrained from Tinubu’s appalling health issues prior to the ignoble public dance of the Tinubu/Shettima campaign.
According to him, since Tinubu by himself has opened the channels for Nigerians to examine his ill-health, “we have no other option than to further expose that the APC candidate must be suffering from manifest Parkinson’s disease accompanied with incontinence.”
Ologbondiyan explained that Parkinson’s disease is a brain disorder whose symptoms include shaking hands, stiffness of limbs, difficulty with coordination, problem with balance when walking; articulation disorder, memory problems, as well as general mental and physical weakness which are all being witnessed in the APC presidential candidate.
He said: “This perhaps accounts for the desperation, the endless gaffes, the articulation errors, the incoherence, the many blunders and disconnection from reality for which Asiwaju Tinubu has become the butt of weird jokes among Nigerians and internationally.”
The spokesperson stressed that it was rather unfortunate that the APC presidential candidate, who cannot stand erect or walk up an elevation unaided, and who was reported in the public space as being challenged by incontinence could attempt to speak on the health status of any Nigerian.
“In any case, Nigerians are aware that Tinubu is not ethically, physically and mentally fit to hold office as the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, unlike the descent, honest, physically, mentally and emotionally fit Atiku Abubakar, who exhibits the manifest readiness, intellectual alertness, capacity and experience to lead our nation at this critical time,” Ologbondiyan added.
He noted that those pushing “Emilokan’s” candidature cannot claim to be unaware that he was not fit to preside over a country of 200 million people.
