Don’t Allow PDP Near Nation’s Commonwealth Again, Tinubu Tells Nigerians

•Says Atiku is an ungrateful wretch, who repays good with evil

•Vows that his detractors can’t kill him

•Your campaign has failed integrity test, PDP mocks APC candidate

Gboyega Akinsanmi, Segun James in Lagos and Chuks Okocha in Abuja

The presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has called on Nigerians not to allow the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) anywhere near Nigeria’s commonwealth again because of the destruction the party wrought on the country.

Tinubu, who made the call yesterday in Lagos at the Teslim Balogun Stadium, Surulere venue of APC presidential campaign’s mega rally, also described his counterpart in the PDP, Atiku Abubakar, as an ungrateful wretch who repays good with evil.

But in a swift response, the former vice president, through the Atiku/Okowa Presidential Campaign Organisation has said with the series of allegations of narcotics trafficking, forgery, perjury, identity crisis and certificate scam against Tinubu, the former Lagos State governor has no integrity left to hold office as the President.

The former Lagos State governor also vowed that his detractors can’t kill him, stressing that any attempt to do so would be disastrous.

The APC presidential candidate said his party’s campaign is a broom revolution, and invoking the spirit of his late mother, Alhaja Abibatu Mogaji, the Iyaloja-General, he followed up with a folksong, singing in Yoruba, “Dagunro o se je, Tinubu o se pa,” meaning literally that he cannot be killed.

Tinubu, who spoke partly in Yoruba, told his detractors that he is like Dagunro, a poison ivy, which cannot be eaten as a vegetable, and that any attempt to do so would be disastrous.

The former Lagos State governor, who became emotional during his speech, accused Atiku of waging a campaign of calumny against him, describing him as a serial defector who keeps running from one political party to the other, and yet, never shows gratitude to those who had helped or accommodated him along the way.

He described Atiku as a veteran aspirant, who should go home and rest.

He also mocked the PDP for not having anything to show for their 16 years at the helm of the nation’s affairs.

He said in the years that the PDP was in power, the party never completed any major projects that can be pointed to.

“This election will be about the broom revolution. You can’t kill me as you did kill others. I know one man, Atiku, who has been contesting since 1999. He ran under the PDP, under the Action Congress (AC), we gave him the platform but they repaid us with evil. Tell him to go and sit at home. Use your PVC to retire him this time around in 2023.”

He urged Nigerians never to allow him and his party near the country’s commonwealth. 

“Atiku has been running. Use your PVC to vote him and his party out. Use your votes to retire him permanently this time. We must never again allow the rapacious and visionless gang of Peoples Destroying People to come near our commonwealth again. They were in government for 16 years, they didn’t remember Badagry Expressway, they didn’t remember East-West Road, they didn’t remember Second Niger Bridge,” Tinubu said, according to a statement by the head of his Media Office, Tunde Rahman.

Speaking to the mammoth crowd that witnessed the rally, he said the PDP in their 16 years never remembered to construct the Second Niger Bridge to the eastern part of the country or the East-West Road that connected the South-south to other parts of the country. 

Tinubu said he would continue with a progressive government, where Nigerians would not be forgotten in education, healthcare and employment generation.

To underscore his support across the country, Tinubu noted that the Governors of Kano, Kastina, Kaduna, Kwara, Kebbi and other APC governors were with him, unlike his opponent, who could not hold his party together. 

Tinubu again used the opportunity of the rally to thank President Muhammadu Buhari for his commitment to the development of Nigeria and Lagos State.

Addressing the rally on the importance of sustaining the progressive governance in Lagos State, Tinubu urged Lagosians to vote for Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu and his deputy, Dr. Obafemi Hamzat, for a second term.

Present at the rally were the party’s National Chairman, Senator Abdullahi Adamu; Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, vice presidential candidate, Senator Kashim Shettima, and Chairman, Nigeria Governors’ Forum and Governor of Kebbi, Atiku Bagudu.

Others were the Director-General of the Tinubu/Shettima Campaigns and the Governor of Plateau State, Hon. Simon Bako Lalong, as well as Governors Abdullahi Ganduje (Kano), Aminu Bello Masari (Katsina), Dapo Abiodun (Ogun), Adegboyega Oyetola (Osun), Abubakar Badaru (Jigawa), Abdulrahman Abdulrasaq and Abiodun Oyebanji (Ekiti).

Also present were Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, Minister of Sports and Youth Development, Sunday Dare, and former Ekiti State Governor, Kayode Fayemi, among others. 

Speaking, the Director General of APC Presidential Campaign Committee and Plateau State Governor, Lalong, said Tinubu is the best among the candidates jostling for the presidency, saying that he stands above all others.

Welcoming the dignitaries and people of Lagos, Sanwo-Olu thanked Tinubu for the foundation he laid in the state and the legacies he left behind as governor, saying he is the right man for the presidency in 2023.

Bagudu, who spoke on behalf of all the progressive governors, thanked the Lagos governor for the successful rally.

“Our party leaders and governors believe in Tinubu and for the right reasons. The world economy has been challenged, Nigeria inclusive. We need someone of Tinubu’s standing and pedigree to take over to help the country wade through,” he said.

Also at the presidential rally, Gbajabiamila took a jab at those asking questions about the age of the APC presidential candidate.

In an apparent reference to the controversy over Tinubu’s age, the speaker declared: “His age is what his mother said he is. And if they are in doubt about his age, they should go and meet his mother to reconfirm.”

Besides, Gbajabiamila told the APC supporters to educate the undecided Nigerians about Tinubu, saying he is the greatest politician in modern-day Nigeria.

He said: “They will ask you how old he is. Tell them he is the age his mother said he is. And if they are in doubt of his age, tell them to go and meet his mother to reconfirm. If they say he is not educated.

“Tell them he is more educated than all the contestants put together. If they tell you he is wanted in America. America has said repeatedly they do not know what they are talking about.

“When they say he is corrupt, tell them he is the most investigated in Nigeria’s history and nothing has been found against him.”  

Your Campaign Has Failed Integrity Test, Atiku Mocks Tinubu

Reacting to Tinubu’s attacks on him, the former vice president, through the Atiku/Okowa Presidential Campaign Organisation, has said with the series of allegations of narcotics trafficking, forgery, perjury, identity crisis and certificate scam against Tinubu, the former Lagos State governor has no integrity left to hold office as the president.

Atiku/Okowa Presidential Campaign Organisation has also described Tinubu as the “drained, disconnected, blundering and day-dreaming aspirant, who has shown a scandalous lack of energy, capacity and presence of mind to stand the rigours of a presidential campaign, let alone the demands of the office of the president.”

In a statement issued yesterday, the spokesperson Atiku/Okowa Campaign Organisation, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, described it as laughable that Tinubu, who cannot comprehend current political dynamics or articulate any meaningful conversation within the demands of contemporary Nigeria, is asking others to go home and rest when such is an advice he ought to give to himself.

“Nigerians are in agreement that if there is any presidential candidate that must go home and rest as demanded by Tinubu, it is Tinubu himself, who has been reported as requiring support to stand, whose speeches are grossly incoherent and who has become the butt of weird jokes among Nigerians for his many blunders.

“Moreover, Tinubu cannot face Nigerians and the international community having forfeited a whopping sum of $460,000 to the United States of America. The least an individual with such a record should do is go home and rest because Nigerians will not have such a person as President.

“Is it not pathetic that Tinubu that needed to forcefully lock all markets in the entire Lagos State to get a motley crowd to attend a rancorous rally is contemplating winning a Presidential election in Nigeria?,” he queried.

He advised Tinubu to accept the reality that an overwhelming majority of Nigerians have already reached a consensus on electing the presidential candidate of Atiku given his energy, competence, capacity, will power and understanding of the issues troubling the country as well as his readiness to provide the solutions.

“Nigerians already know that Tinubu is full of frustration and jealousy for Atiku, but resorting to insults instead of activating any form of the issue-based campaign will not help him,” he added.