The Director, Media and Publicity, All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council, Bayo Onanuga, has refuted notions that the comment of the ruling party’s presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, made on fuel scarcity and naira redesign was targeted at the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.
National dailies on Thursday reported that Tinubu had cited the lingering fuel crisis and naira redesign by the Central Bank of Nigeria as part of the plots to scuttle the polls and his expected victory.
The APC standard bearer spoke during the APC presidential campaign held at the MKO Abiola Stadium, Kuto, Abeokuta, Ogun State.
However, the opposition Peoples Democratic Party and oil marketers faulted the ex-Lagos state governor’s allegations.
Reacting to the notions by some camps, Onanuga said PDP members working in partnership with fifth columnists were the ones bent on inflicting avoidable pains on hapless Nigerians to achieve a political end.
In a statement signed and made available on Thursday, Onanuga said, “Atiku’s camp is issuing a knee-jerk response, derailing from the issues, distorting Tinubu’s views at the Abeokuta rally, to create a wedge between him and President Muhammadu Buhari.
He added, “When the guilty are afraid of being uncovered, they try to push back with red-herring.
“For the records, Asiwaju Tinubu during the APC campaign rally at Abeokuta on Wednesday, in his statement, did not mention, blame or accuse President Muhammadu Buhari for the current challenges in the country.
“Asiwaju 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.
“In recent days, many ATMs are either not working or when working they are dispensing the old notes, just a few days to the January 31 deadline.
“Similarly, Asiwaju 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.
“How does an advisory genuinely made by Asiwaju Tinubu to protect and create goodwill for the government of his party become an attack? It can only be so in the jaundiced view of the PDP.
“It is in this light we found amusing the directionless Atiku Campaign’s bagful of mischief in their hurriedly put-together press statement meant to gain shameful mileage from the suffering of Nigerians.
“PDP and Atiku should remember not to get high on their own smoke. No political blackmail and an attempt to create a conflict between Tinubu and his long-term ally, President Muhammadu Buhari can succeed.
“We have bad news for Atiku and his handlers: their latest mischief is therefore doomed to fail.
“The Atiku rudderless campaign, always seeking cheap shots and easy ways has again woefully attempted to make a mountain out of a molehill from the comments made by Asiwaju Tinubu in Abeokuta.
“As a patriotic and compassionate leader, Asiwaju Tinubu will not stomach seeing ordinary Nigerians being made to face excessive difficulties over mundane issues due to activities of petrol and currency hoarders.
“As a proud leader of the APC, Asiwaju Tinubu would not also look indifferent as his party and the government get dirty with a black brush at a critical time like this, whether he is a candidate or not.
Onanuga further said that come February 25, Nigerians will vote for a party that is working to solve all the problems and mess created by the PDP for 16 years which Atiku was an integral part.
