The All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council has exonerated the presidential candidate of the party, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, over comments where he alleged that the current fuel scarcity and the redesign of the naira was aimed at truncating his presidential ambition.
Bayo Onanuga, the Director, Media and Publicity of the APC Campaign Council, in a statement issued on Thursday blamed those he referred to as “fifth columnists” working in cahoots with the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) as being responsible for the scarcity of fuel and new naira notes.
Tinubu had said during a campaign rally in Abeokuta, Ogun State on Wednesday that, “Let fuel be expensive, only they know where they keep it. Keep petrol, keep the naira, we will vote and be elected. You may change the ink of naira notes. What you expect will not happen. We will win.”
Reacting to this, the PDP said Tinubu was trying to blackmail President Muhammadu Buhari and blamed “the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led Federal Government over his looming devastating rejection by Nigerians.”
“It is unfortunate that Asiwaju Tinubu is trying to hoodwink Nigerians by seeking to exonerate himself and blame others in the Buhari led-APC administration from the biting fuel scarcity in the country, when in reality he (Asiwaju Tinubu) is known to be behind the insensitive and anti-people policies that have brought so much calamity to our country including the current persistent fuel scarcity,” the PDP added.
However, in a response to the PDP statement, the APC Campaign Council said, “For a presidential candidate who cares about the suffering of our people, he has a duty to warn the government that its efforts to make life better for Nigerians are being sabotaged on several front.
“How does an advisory genuinely made by Asiwaju Tinubu to protect and create goodwill for the government of his party become an attack? It can only be so in the jaundiced view of the PDP.
“It is in this light we found amusing the directionless Atiku campaign’s bagful of mischief in their hurriedly put-together press statement meant to gain shameful mileage from the suffering of Nigerians.
“PDP and Atiku should remember not to get high on their own smoke. No political blackmail and an attempt to create a conflict between Tinubu and his long-term ally, President Muhammadu Buhari can succeed.
“The Atiku rudderless campaign, always seeking cheap shots and easy ways has again woefully attempted to make a mountain out of a molehill from the comments made by Asiwaju Tinubu in Abeokuta.
“As a patriotic and compassionate leader, Asiwaju Tinubu will not stomach seeing ordinary Nigerians being made to face excessive difficulties over mundane issues due to activities of petrol and currency hoarders.”
