A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, Jesutega Onokpasa, has again appealed to President Bola Tinubu to stop those around him from hounding former governors Nasir el-Rufai and Yahaya Bello of Kaduna and Kogi states, respectively.
He maintained that the continued persecution of the former governors, despite their massive role in the emergence of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu as President of the country, was already making people scared of supporting the President in the future.
While addressing Tinubu in a video clip that has gone viral, the famous Tinubu loyalist, Onokpasa, insinuated that those using the anti-graft agencies to persecute the former governors were doing so for their selfish interests.
According to him, this is giving room for the speculation that APC is a party that uses and dumps loyalists, “stab them at the back and throw them under the bus.“
The APC chieftain and member of the Asiwaju Bola Tinubu Presidential Campaign Council also urged the President to forgive the former governors, whom he described as his sons, in case they had offended him.
Onokpasa argued against a recent statement credited to the President on why he doesn‘t interfere in the affairs of the anti-graft agencies, saying, „You see, this narrative that you do not interfere in the affairs of the anti-graft agencies, my President, nobody believes it. Not when Bayo Onanuga, a Presidential spokesman, took it upon himself to start hounding Governor Yahaya Bello that he should submit himself to the EFCC and so on as if the EFCC does not have a spokesman.
treatment. What an insult to us, your supporters. Yahaya took this man (Emefiele) to court on your behalf, for your good, for our collective good; Yahaya took Emefiele to court and took the CBN to court. He, alongside El-Rufai and Bello Matawalle.
“Then we will turn around like a bull of vipers, stab him in the back and give the impression that we are the kind of people who use and dump people? Who stabs our comrades in the back? Who throws our brothers under the bus?
“People are already regrouping Asiwaju. If nobody is telling you that, I am telling you this. They are regrouping; they openly threaten us these days. They say you guys, wait for us; you will hear from us in 2027. Please, there is no need for all this.“
Maintaining that he doesn’t want any appointment from this administration other than the demand for fairness as regards the former governors, the APC chieftain stated, „One person was telling me the other day that my appointment is being delayed because I support Yahaya Bello. I should turn my back on him because of an appointment. Take the appointment. Don‘t blackmail me. Nonsense! Please, my President, I plead with you, tell these crazy people to leave our brothers alone. Call them off, tell them to behave themselves. I don‘t want an appointment; if that is the one you will do for me, I will be satisfied. Let them stop harassing them.“
“Pound for pound, nobody contributed to this presidency more than Nasir el-Rufai. He mobilised all the northern governors, and that power must shift to the South. We can‘t be giving the impression that we are not to be trusted, then there is no political capital anymore because trust is everything,“ the lawyer told President Tinubu.
Asking Tinubu to gather everyone in the party and allow bygones to be bygones, Onokpasa pleaded for unity, saying, „I urge you to forgive your sons, Yahaya Bello and Nasir el-Rufai. Whatever they might have done, since nobody is ready to give any reasonable information about it. But, whatever, to err is human; to forgive is divine. Many of those who are with you now, including the ones you made ministers, were the ones insulting us before and during the campaign.
“Suddenly now, it is Yahaya and El-Rufai, some of the brightest stars in the North, that we are supposed to take as public enemies number one. I am not buying it. I am not turning my back on former Governor Yahaya Bello, I am not at all. I am very proud of him and will stand with him regardless of the consequences. If anybody wants to make an appointment with me, dash my appointment to the Obidients.“
Credit: Leadership