Atiku to DSS, Police: Invite Fani-Kayode for Questioning Over Coup Allegation

*Says ex-minister’s claims too weighty, insinuations about overthrow shouldn’t be taken lightly

Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja

The presidential candidate of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, has called on the Department of State Services (DSS), the Nigeria Police, and other security agencies to invite Director of Special Projects and New Media of the Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) of All Progressives Congress (APC), Femi Fani-Kayode, to explain his allegations and insinuations about an alleged coup plan by Atiku and top military generals. Atiku made the call in a statement issued yesterday by his Special Assistant, Public Communications, Mr. Phrank Shaibu.

The statement was in reaction to a tweet by Fani-Kayode, which alleged that Atiku met with top army generals in a possible plan to scuttle the forthcoming general election or perpetrate a coup d’état, an offence that attracts the death penalty.
Atiku described Fani-Kayode’s attempt to recant as belated, saying the allegations are too grave to be ignored. He noted that when the late Deputy Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Obadiah Mailafia, made allegations that a serving governor was a Boko Haram commander, he was invited five times by the DSS and the police until he had to run to court.

The PDP presidential candidate stressed that Fani-Kayode must not be given a preferential treatment because he worked for the ruling party.
Atiku stated, “Ordinarily, we wouldn’t have bothered responding to Fani-Kayode, who has over the years built a reputation of being an inveterate liar so much so that he was even publicly blacklisted by the Nigeria Union of Journalists after his disgraceful outburst at a journalist.
“However, allegations and insinuations of a coup should not be taken lightly given the fact that it is treason, an offence that carries the death penalty. While commending the Nigerian military for effectively rubbishing Fani-Kayode’s barefaced lie, we call on security agencies to invite him to shed more light on the allegations.”

Atiku alleged that the former Minister of Aviation had vilified many people through his lies, and wanted to get acceptance without doing penance for an act of wickedness motivated by finance.
He added, “No! Fani Kayode cannot recant. We refuse to accept that. He who comes to equity must come with clean hands. He who comes to the Lord must come with contrition. Contrition requires remorse and confession. If Fani-Kayode wants Nigerians to take him serious, it is his confession that he lied or his provision of proof that he did not.

“The late Mailafia was invited more than five times by the DSS and the police for saying a serving governor was a Boko Haram commander. Fani-Kayode has also made an allegation that borders on security and must, thus, be invited to expiate, as failure to do so will be partisanship.”
Atiku stressed that Fani-Kayode was well known by Nigerians as a cantankerous and unscrupulous individual who had been unable to shake off allegations of substance abuse levelled against him in a statement signed by Alhaji Lai Mohammed on March 2, 2015.

“In a statement on March 2, 2015, the then APC National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed (now information minister), said Fani-Kayode may have been ‘unhinged, perhaps as a result of a relapse into an unhealthy lifestyle of substance abuse’”, he recalled.
Atiku also stated, “Today, Fani-Kayode has chosen to be the spokesman for Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a man who American authorities accused of laundering millions of dollars for drug kingpins and was forced to forfeit $460,000. Indeed, Fani-Kayode and Tinubu’s new found love is understandable because as the saying goes, show me your friend and I will tell you who you are.”

He said it was ironic that Fani-Kayode had been missing his corruption trial before the Federal High Court in Lagos, claiming that he was ill and yet continued to play an active role in Tinubu’s campaign.
According to Atiku, “Fani-Kayode is currently facing corruption charges to the tune of N4.9 billion before Justice Abike Fadipe at the Federal High Court in Lagos. For several months he refused to show up in court but went on to forge a medical report of Kubwa General Hospital, claiming to be ill, only for the hospital to deny ever issuing the report.

“This inveterate and ineradicable liar is the same person that Tinubu decided to appoint as his image maker. What a shame.”
Atiku asked Nigerians to remember that Fani-Kayode remained the biggest traducer of APC until last year. He called on Nigerians not to forget that it was Fani-Kayode that had been demonising northerners, encouraging separatists, and inciting South-west agitators for the last seven years.

Atiku stated, “Nigerians must not forget that it was Fani-Kayode that gave the APC the nickname Almajiri Peoples Congress. This is a man that said he would rather die than join the APC, describing the ruling party as a bloodthirsty, blood-lusting, accursed political association of Boko Haramists, Fulani herdsmen, genocidal maniacs, ethnic cleansers, mass murderers, ethnic supremacists, religious bigots, cow-lovers and corrupt treasury looters that have brought nothing but death, division, misery, poverty, incompetence, shame and destruction to our nation and our people will burn in hell forever!”

“Fani-Kayode has never believed in the unity and prosperity of Nigerians. In a bid to hold the government to ransom, he became a spokesman for IPOB, following Nnamdi Kanu all over the place in order to gain relevance. From there, he jumped to Sunday Igboho whom he was encouraging to attack and kill northerners.
“After he was called to the dinner table by the APC, he suddenly became interested in nation building and became the de facto campaign manager of Yahaya Bello and then moved over to Senate President Ahmad Lawan before settling for Tinubu. For Fani-Kayode, it is ‘anywhere belle face.’”
The former vice president said when President Muhammadu Buhari’s only surviving son, Yusuf, suffered a motorbike accident in December 2017, every Nigerian, regardless of religion and political affiliation, prayed for his speedy recovery but this was not the case with Fani-Kayode.

“Rather than act like a normal human being, these were the words Fani-Kayode had to utter when the president’s only son was struggling for his life: God told Pharaoh to let my people go.  Pharaoh asked who He was? God told him ‘I am the I Am, that I Am’ and sent signs of His awesome power. It cost Pharaoh both his own life and that of his son.”