Atiku raises alarm over Tinubu’s alleged plot to instigate riots

The Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Waziri Atiku Abubakar, has raised the alarm over an alleged plot by his opponents in the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu, to cause riots with the aim of causing a revolution.

The PDP candidate further alerted the Department of State Services (DSS) and other relevant authorities of the alleged plot by the APC candidate to destabilise the country using violent means.

This was contained in a statement signed by Atiku’s Special Assistant on Public Communications, Phrank Shaibu, in Abuja, on Thursday.

He said Tinubu’s outburst at the APC rally in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, on Wednesday, January 26, 2023, was a prelude to the violence the Lagos godfather was planning.

Shaibu urged Nigerians to recall that Tinubu, while addressing a crowd at Abeokuta, almost declared himself as the winner of an election that is 29 days away using the same entitlement mentality that he used in blackmailing his party men into getting the ticket for the general election.

He said, “We restate that, his rhetoric does not reflect someone who will accept defeat in the event of his imminent electoral loss.

Shaibu quoted Tinubu as saying in the Yoruba language, “This is a revolution. This election is a revolution. They don’t want us to have voted. They want to scatter it. Will you agree? No… I’m bringing a revolution.”

He further said, “Tinubu is not too big and he has no immunity neither is he above the law of the land to be interrogated by the Department of State Services or by the Nigerian police.

“To avoid bloodshed in the coming election, the APC flag bearer’s comments must not be waved aside. For clarity, in political science, a revolution is a ‘forcible overthrow of a government or social order in favour of a new system”.

The Atiku aide equally said, “It is funny that Tinubu, who has been the national leader of his political party for over eight years, is now threatening a revolution against a government being run by his party, one month to an election in which he is participating in. Essentially, he is saying if he cannot have it, no one will. 

“Recall that earlier in June 2022, Tinubu boasted in the same Yoruba language and also in Abeokuta about how president Buhari cried on National Television following his electoral losses and how he (Tinubu ) made him President.

“It is not a coincidence that barely seven months after, he returned to Abeokuta to accuse and denigrate President Mohammadu and the APC-led Federal Government of trying to frustrate him.

“From the information available to us, Tinubu has begun releasing money to some of his quack activists to stage protests in some strategic locations in the country especially in Abuja in order to cause violence ahead of the polls which he will lose.

“On the surface, the protests will be about the lingering petrol scarcity which he had refused to comment on before the election.

“Some demonstrations will also be held against the Central Bank of Nigeria in order to force the apex bank to extend the deadline for the currency swap.

“While it is the inalienable right of Nigerians to protest, Tinubu’s accusation that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was behind the petrol scarcity and the scarcity of the new naira note, a nonsensical claim given the fact that the PDP has not been in power for the last eight years.

“As his former campaign director, Hajia Najaatu Mohammed stated on Arise Television, Tinubu has no honour whatsoever. Money is his religion and his essence.

“He wants to buy the election with bullion vans just as he bought the Presidential ticket of his party last year but this will never happen.

“Hajia Mohammed also brought back to the consciousness of Nigerians the fact that Tinubu’s running mate, Senator Kashim Shettima, may also have links to Boko Haram given the fact that convicted terrorist, Kabiru Sokoto, was arrested at the Borno Governor’s Lodge when Shettima was governor of the state.

“For emphasis, Kabiru Sokoto was the mastermind of the Christmas Day bombing of the St Theresa Roman Catholic Church on 25 December 2011 in Madalla, Niger State which killed 37 Christians.“

This, he said presents a twin problem for Nigeria. The APC Presidential candidate, Tinubu, has incontrovertible ties with drug barons as established by American authorities while Shettima, his running mate, harboured a terrorist in his lodge as established by Nigerian authorities.

“Now, I don’t know a baggage huger than this for a country like Nigeria that is struggling to sell herself to the world to now have its president and vice weighed down by this dubious pedigree.“

Credit: Vanguard News Nigeria