The All Progressives Congress (APC) says no attempt to create conflict between Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and President Muhammadu Buhari will succeed.
Mr Bayo Onanuga, Director, Media and Publicity, APC Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) said this in a statement on Thursday in Abuja.
Onanuga was reacting to media report alleging that Tinubu had blamed Buhari for the current fuel scarcity as well the CBN naira redesign at a rally in Abeokuta.
He said the report was fake as it was sponsored by fifth columnist working in collaboration with the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
“For the records, Asiwaju Tinubu during APC campaign rally at Abeokuta on Wednesday, did not mention, blame or accuse President Buhari for the current challenges in the country,” Onanuga said.
He added that Tinubu was only attracting government’s attention to the sabotage being carried out by some fifth columnists in the system, possibly working in cahoots with the PDP.
“The CBN officials, including Gov. Godwin Emefiele have said many times that enough new naira notes have been supplied to the banks, yet our people complain that they have not been able to get the new notes.
“In recent days, many ATMs are either not working or when working, are dispensing the old naira notes, just a few days to the Jan. 31 deadline,” Onanuga said.
He added that Tinubu was aware of the salutary efforts by Buhari to end the fuel queues, by chairing a 14-man panel, even though the fuel queues and agony had continued.
He added that for a presidential candidate, who cared about the suffering of the people, Tinubu had a duty to warn government that its efforts to make life better for Nigerians were being sabotaged on several fronts.
“Tinubu only re-echoed what is well known and acknowledged, even by Buhari himself at different fora: that there are fifth columnists in and outside of government,” Onanuga said.
The APC PCC Director of Media and Publicity said the fifth columnist often threw spanners in the works against good intentions and programmes of the government.
He wondered how an advisory genuinely made by Tinubu to protect and create goodwill for the government of his party became an attack.
“It can only be so in the jaundiced view of the PDP.
“It is in this light we found amusing the direction less Atiku campaign’s bagful of mischief in their hurriedly put together press statement meant to gain shameful mileage from the suffering of Nigerians.
“The 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.
“We have bad news for Atiku and his handlers: their latest mischief is therefore doomed to fail,” he said.
He said the Atiku rudderless campaign, always seeking cheap shots and easy ways had again woefully attempted to make a mountain out of a molehill from the comments made by Asiwaju Tinubu in Abeokuta.
Onanuga added that as a patriotic and compassionate leader, Tinubu would not stomach seeing ordinary Nigerians being made to face excessive difficulties over mundane issues due to activities of petrol and currency hoarders.
He added that as a proud leader of the APC, Tinubu would not also look indifferent as his party and the government got dirtied with black brush at a critical time like this, whether he was a candidate or not.
“Atiku camp’s hasty move to mine political capital out of the clearly difficult situation betrays his campaign’s possible connivance, due to its desperation.
“As Tinubu said in Abeokuta, these orchestrated hardships will not stop his impending victory come Feb. 25.
“Nigerians shall surely vote for a party that is working to solve all the problems and mess created by the PDP for which their presidential candidate was an integral part in the, largely, 16 unproductive years they spent in government.
“Atiku and his team can continue their indulgence in fake news and twisted narratives, they cannot change the minds of majority of Nigerians who have long rejected the PDP and Atiku, after their 16 wasted years in power,” Onanuga said.
He said Nigerians should no longer be in doubt about those working in cahoots with fifth columnists in the system to inflict avoidable pains on our hapless people for political end.
He said it was unfortunate that no sooner had Tinubu empathised with the Nigerian people facing the dual crises of fuel and new naira notes scarcity, than the opposition PDP and the Atiku camp issued a knee-jerk response.
He noted that the Atiku camp had been derailing from the issues, distorting Tinubu’s statement and trying in vain, to create a wedge between Buhari and the former two-term Lagos State governor.
“When the guilty are afraid of being uncovered, they try to push back with red-herring,” Onanuga said.