With few weeks to the general election, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) counterpart, Atiku Abubakar, have rekindled their backlash and lashed back in the bid to clinch the presidency.
It’s no news that the two presidential hopefuls have been at loggerheads since the commencement of the campaigns for the 2023 polls, attacking themselves with incisive vituperations in the ongoing credibility battle.
The rangling resumed yesterday when Tinubu asked security agencies to immediately arrest and prosecute Atiku over a recent revelation of alleged collusion with former President Olusegun Obasanjo to fleece and loot public funds.
But lashing back at Tinubu, the PDP flagbearer said the call for his arrest and prosecution over alleged corruption was diversionary, irresponsible, and a sheer attempt to divert the attention of Nigerians from the issues affecting the country.
Recall that an audio recording was released in a viral video by Atiku’s former aide, Michael Achimugu, last week, in which the former vice president is alleged to have explained how some organizations were set up to divert public funds through special purpose vehicles (SPVs).
In the audio which is yet to be confirmed, Atiku was heard admitting that while serving as deputy to Obasanjo between 1999 and 2007, he founded the SPVs with the aim to “carry out certain activities” in a deceitful bid to avoid being linked to corruption.
Speaking through the APC presidential campaign council at a world press conference in Abuja yesterday, Tinubu insisted on the arrest of Atiku, saying the former vice president does not enjoy immunity simply because he is a presidential candidate.
Director of Public Affairs and chief spokesperson of the APC presidential campaign council, Festus Keyamo (SAN), said Atiku must apologize and renounce his presidential ambition.
Keyamo who is also the minister of state for Labour and Productivity said Atiku has a case to answer.
Reading from the text of the world press conference, Keyamo stated: “Atiku does not enjoy immunity because he is a presidential candidate. We are saying this because they may be reluctant to act on the perception of the persecution of a presidential candidate it may invoke. However, facts are sacred.
“In other serious clime where situations like this arose, the law enforcement agencies acted decisively. You may recall in 2016, in the middle of campaigns for the exalted office of president in the US, the case of the private email of Hilary Clinton was referred to the justice department for likely prosecution a few weeks to actual voting, though she was actually cleared.
“That is what we want the authorities to do in the case of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. He has to be arrested, invited. He is not God. He does not enjoy immunity because he is a candidate.
“All monies should be recovered from the marine float account. In the voice note, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar can be heard boasting that the issue of that account was thoroughly investigated by the EFCC, yet he was smart enough to escape.”
Keyamo recalled that durKeyamo further noted that the issue of the Marine Float Account was not new to Nigerians, adding that Atiku, then, was smart enough to escape.
“In the light of these very grave revelations, we call on Atiku Abubakar to immediately tender an unreserved apology to the Nigerian people and step down from the Presidential race forthwith, whilst handing himself over to the law enforcement agencies.
Meanwhile, Keyamo also gave the three anti-graft agencies 72 hours ultimatum to arrest, interrogate and prosecute Atiku.
Keyamo, in a five-page petition dated Monday, January 16, 2023 to the chairmen of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB), accused the PDP candidate of four major infractions.
He alleged that Atiku colluded to fleece the country of public funds using what he termed as “Special Purpose Vehicles” (SPVs).
The APC campaign spokesman stated that with the public revelations of a whistleblower, Michael Achimugu, and pieces of evidence, Atiku has a case to answer.
