Nigerians Must Not Submit to Tinubu’s Slavery, Atiku Campaign Council Warns

•Says former Lagos governor now rejected in South-west

Omo-Julius Onabu in Asaba

The Atiku Campaign Organisation has cautioned Nigerians to be wary of the antics of the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Senator Bola Tinubu, and not submit to his “overlordship as he is currently doing in Lagos.”

The spokesman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Presidential Campaign Council, Charles Aniagwu, yesterday, gave the advice at a news conference in Asaba, where he warned that Nigerians would be subjecting themselves to internal slavery if they allowed Tinubu to become Nigerian president.

He alleged that Tinubu who had already captured Lagos, was looking for an avenue to extend his control on the other 35 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

Owing to this, he urged Nigerians to avoid repeating the mistake Lagosians made by allowing Tinubu control everything that happens in the entire state.

According to him, “As a campaign council we are urging Nigerians not to make the mistake of submitting themselves to internal slavery by the APC whose presidential candidate had since captured Lagos and what he is looking for is to expand his territorial control beyond Lagos to control the entire country in form of slavery.

“For those of you who may not know, a number of the major projects and programmes in Lagos are controlled by this same individual.

“When you get to Lagos and ask them about BRT, you will discover that it is handled by this man’s family. The signages in Lagos which is a very big business is handled by his son, the collection of taxes in Lagos which is the biggest in terms of tax collection is handled by a company that is said to belong to this same man.

“Needn’t I mention other sources of revenue that Lagos should have benefited from and you also know how he handpicks those who will govern Lagos to the extent that Ambode, a man that was doing well was taken out because he disagreed with them on how to share the funds of the people of Lagos,” he alleged.

He said for such a person to aspire to govern our country, it will be very detrimental to all of us.

“If we don’t want to submit ourselves to slavery, Nigerians must stop Tinubu from crossing Lagos into the other 35 states and the FCT because that will amount to internal slavery for all of us where he alone will determine the next president, and who gets what and not forces of democratic governance.

“As part of that unbridled quest to expand his grip and capture the states, they have cooked up stories because they have seen that Nigerians are convinced that Atiku Abubakar is a man that has what it takes to recover this country and place it on the path of growth and development.

“They have gone to wake up a blackmailer and they call him a whistle blower. Am sure that as journalists you know who a whistle blower is and who a blackmailer is?

“Michael Achimugu was not a staff of Atiku Abubakar, he was a staff of one of the support groups with the daughter, he was not employed to work for Atiku Abubakar.

“If all he does is to record his boss and his friend and you call that whistle blowing, all of you know that is not whistle blowing, but blackmail and anybody who is a blackmailer cannot be taken seriously and we are not perturbed because it was not done with the intention to help our country.”

Aniagwu, who is Commissioner for Information in Delta, said the campaign council was concerned about the challenges bedeviling the nation and how to solve them and not engage in mundane issues.

“As a campaign council we know what the issues are that our youths are losing their jobs and more than 133million Nigerians are now suffering from what they call multi-dimensional poverty, our economy is not in the best of shape while our unity is terribly challenged.

“There also the need for our children to have the best of education to curb the ‘Jappa’ syndrome and of course to progress the country from a consumption atmosphere to a much more productive environment.

“Any attempt to raise issues that don’t add up so that they can have their way to enslave the rest of us, we are asking Nigerians to be weary of him and ask Lagosians what they are going through in his hands.

“Our forefathers fought the slave masters and colonial masters and chased them away to where they came from so we cannot afford to enthrone internal slave masters who will decide how the country would be governed.

“Our desire is to get our economy working again, unite Nigerians against divisive tendencies, fix infrastructure, address insecurity which has stiffled productivity and weakened our fabrics as a nation.

“In doing so we will amend the constitution and give way for state police and other matters. The APC has not given the country any hope in the past let alone renewing it so we cannot afford to allow them enslave the rest of the country,” he said.

Meanwhile, the PDP also described Tinubu, as a rejected figure in the South-west, a geopolitical zone believed by many as his stronghold.

The PDP PCC stated this in reaction to calls for the arrest and interrogation of Atiku by the APC campaign council, over claims by Achimugu, that the ex-vice president helped himself to public funds while in office from 1999-2007.

The campaign council chided the Tinubu Media team for attacking the duo of former President Olusegun Obasanjo and Atiku in a bid to promote Tinubu’s aspiration.

A statement signed by the spokesman for the PDP Campaign Council, Dino Melaye, urged Tinubu’s handlers to remember that Lagos where the APC flag bearer holds sway was only a part of the larger Nigerian nation, that he was seeking the support of millions of citizens to preside over.

The statement entitled, ‘Tinubu’s Media Gang and the Pity of Electoral Hallucination’, partly read, “The struggling marketers of Tinubu, rather than face the rejection that Tinubu is facing everywhere, are gloating on an empty prospect.

“With all the false claims of Tinubu that he holds the aces in the South West, it is now obvious that critical social structures like Afenifere, major stakeholders like Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, and faith cum political voices like Pastor Tunde Bakare, have all rejected him.

“A man who does not enjoy charity at home is now seeking that the hands of other well-grounded and rounded candidates are tied to pave way for him. The game has just started!

“It is not surprising that Obasanjo and Atiku are now being set up for attack. The combined activities of the duo constitute the effective terminator of the misguided aspiration of Tinubu to inherit an office that has no ancestral link to Iragbiji. Obasanjo’s assertion that ’emi lokan’ is an immoral and misleading claim and Atiku’s pole position in the build-up to the February 25 election has made them objects of mudslinging and rabid attacks.”

It added: “Having been suffocated in the campaign space, and looking for a shortcut to a far-fetched and improbable electoral success, the media gang of Ahmed Bola Tinubu in pitiable agony, struggled to clutch to a straw by placing their hope in an empty vessel, who is capitalising on the desperation of the Tinubu and his dreamers to sell fairy tales for a fortune.

“The Tinubu media jesters have often equated Nigeria with Lagos, where Baba so’pe (Baba said) is all that needs to be bellowed for all kinds of untoward actions to be taken. They forget that Nigeria is a country of due process, where allegations don’t amount to conviction, and where any urchin can wake up on the side of a bed to throw tantrums without any reprehension.

“The failure of the Tinubu gang is evident in their failed blackmail and insinuation against the very vibrant Nigerian media.”