The President Muhammadu Buhari Campaign Organization has raised the alarm over what it called plans by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP to release further wild, unsubstantiated allegations against President Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo. This came on the heels of allegations by PDP that the President’s family’s members recently acquired shares in Etisalat and Keystone bank.
A statement signed by the Buhari Campaign Spokesman Festus Keyamo,SAN on Thursday said: “With the latest refrain of the PDP linking some phantom shares in Etisalat and Keystone bank to the ‘family’ of the President, we have it on good authority that the Presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party and his party are set to release a series of wild, unsubstantiated allegations against the President and Vice President including their friends and family members, in the next few weeks.
Buhari’s campaign office said, “With the latest revelation that the said shares are rather linked to relatives of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, it has become a case of the thief calling the farm owner the thief, as the Yorubas would say in a popular proverb. These impending wild allegations would naturally border on corrupt practices without any evidential basis. The purpose is to attempt to dent the greatest forte of the President and Vice President going into 2019 elections, which is their personal integrity.
According to Keyamo, “The latest tactics of the main opposition is premised on the following grounds:
“Since
their stuttering campaigns started, they have felt the pulse of Nigerians and
realized Nigerians have not forgotten their misdeeds of 16 years whilst in
office.
“They have decided to run a campaign of “we-are-all-corrupt” rather than defend
their sordid records of merciless looting of the public purse, which has
brought us to where we are today.
“The aim is to push Nigerians to equate an
Alhaji Atiku Abubakar with President Muhammadu Buhari on matters of corruption.
They want to deceive Nigerians to think that the 2019 elections is really a
choice between two “corrupt” persons
“By repeating the lies a million times, they aim to get Nigerians to begin to
give some serious thought to the lies. This is how the “Jubrin from Sudan”
story started, before even some well-exposed and educated Nigerians were nearly
converted on that issue.
“Their
latest desperate diversionary tactics is because even the most uneducated
Nigerian has now understood that all the issues upon which the main opposition
is campaigning are self-indicting issues, especially on the Economy and
Security. The foundation for the challenges in these sectors, are firmly rooted
in their 16 years of disastrous governance. President Buhari has just started a
re-building process.
Buhari’s campaign body cautioned that “Nigerians should therefore brace up for
six weeks of despicable lies from the pit of hell against the President and
Vice President, to try to suggest to Nigerians that the President and his
deputy are part of the league of looters to which they belong. But Nigerians
should understand that the choices before them have never been this clear: It
is between a fugitive from the law in America and a President who has never
been accused of stealing anything in his entire life and is respected both
locally and internationally; It is between a man who claims he wants to ‘get
Nigeria working again’ yet has always refused to pay his taxes AS AT WHEN DUE
and a man who has NEVER cheated the Nigerian State. Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has
since kept an ominous silence over this damaging allegation of irresponsible
and deliberate tax evasion that is now before a court of law.
“Whilst the President and Vice President are prepared and willing to answer any genuine inquiry raised about their stewardship, Nigerians should always ask the critical questions as to “where”, “when”, “how”, names, dates, addresses, etc in respect of any allegation raised by the opposition before giving any credence to it. This is because as the Atiku Campaign continues to fall apart on a daily basis, we may hear such desperate allegation from them that President Buhari has sold the buildings in Aso Rock to the Israelis or Americans!!!
“Nigerians should tell Alhaji Atiku Abubakar that it is too late in the day to impugn the integrity of Mr. President, or to “package” himself before Nigerians as a honest man. Nigerians only need to read the book by his former boss, ex President, Olusegun Obasanjo titled, “MY WATCH”.
“Alhaji Atiku Abubakar must bear the cross and tar of corruption alone (as pronounced by the Congress in America and his former boss). He should not drag President Muhammadu Buhari into that room of moral debauchery with him.
PDP to Buhari: respond to Atiku’s allegations
The PDP Presidential Campaign
Organization has declared that President
Muhammadu Buhari no longer has the moral standing to seek re-election until he
directly answers its Presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, on the revelation
that the President has soiled his hands in the alleged corrupt acquisition of
Etisalat Nigeria and Keystone Bank PLC.
The PPCO insists that President
Buhari should perish the thought of going ahead with his re-election campaign
without clearing this pertinent issue, because it directly borders on his
integrity both as a person and the exulted office of the President of the
Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The PDP Presidential Campaign
challenged President Buhari to explain how his family members came about the
sum of N1.032 trillion for this scandalous acquisition.
Nigerians are not interested in mere
rhetoric or attempts by the Buhari Presidency to divert public attention from
the issue at hand, but demand that President Buhari, who hitherto prides
himself as Mr. Integrity, squarely addresses these grave issues in person.
“This is not an issue for President
Buhari’s aides to howl about in the media, it touches directly on his person,
particularly his perception as a symbol of the Talakawas. He must therefore
address them on this issue.
“It is a norm that he who comes to
equity must come with clean hands. President Buhari and his family members have
entangled themselves in corruption. Mr. President’s hands can no longer be said
to be clean, until he proves otherwise.
The PPCO wants Nigerians and the whole world to note that President Buhari’s refusal to personally address this matter means consent.
We, therefore, dare President Buhari
to put forth a denial on this disclosure by our candidate and we will spare no
thoughts in furnishing the public with details of his corrupt activities within
and outside Nigeria.
“Our party has full details of how
persons related to President Buhari, by consanguinity and affinity, have been
paved the way to loot trillions of naira from government agencies for corrupt
acquisition of shares in major companies, purchase expensive property within
and outside Nigeria, as well as to finance their very luxury lifestyles, under
Mr. President’s cover…
“Furthermore, our party is privy to the facts of how these relations of the
President have been hounding government agencies, major business concerns and
intending foreign investors over kickbacks as well as strangulating companies
that refuse to accede to their demands.
Nigerians will also recall how the Buhari Presidency muted the case of the Aide of the First Lady, Mr. Baba-Inna, who was arrested in September this year, over accusations of receiving N2.5 billion from politicians, businessmen and women on behalf of the First Lady.
“Nigerians can also recall how the Buhari Presidency gagged the confession of
one Amina Mohammed, paraded by the Department of State Services (DSS), who
stated in public that persons close to President Muhammadu Buhari were involved
in serial fraud and looting of public resources under the official cover of the
Buhari Presidency.
“President Buhari should therefore
not continue to dress himself in borrowed garb of integrity until he cleans
himself of the stinking corruption of his acolytes, family and friends under
his cover.
Also in another statement, the PDP Presidential Campaign Organization (PPCO) charged the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to investigate the alleged looting of over N4 billion under the Tradermoni and the Farmers Anchor Borrower schemes, to fund President Muhammadu Buhari’s 2019 re-election campaign.
The PPCO also urged the EFCC to open investigation into the alleged looting of
the repatriated $322 million (about N115 billion), by the Buhari Presidency,
under the cover of distributing the money to the poor.
It called on the EFCC should also commence the prosecution of all those reportedly indicted by the House of Representatives, alongside Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, for alleged diversion of a huge part of the N33 billion, meant for food and other welfare items for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the North East.
