PDP kicks as FG warns Atiku

THE National Working Committee (NWC) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), on Thursday, said no amount of fabrications, attempt at set-up as well as veiled and open threats by the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led Federal Government would stop its presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, from reclaiming his mandate at the tribunal.

This came as a result of the Thursday’s Federal Government’s accusation of the former vice president, Alhaji Atiku, of attempting to recreate the Venezuelan model by instigating crisis in the country just like the opposition has done in the South American country.

Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, in a press conference in Abuja, on Thursday, cited the reported pressure being put on the United States government by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate in the just concluded elections not to recognise President Muhammadu Buhari as the winner until the conclusion of the Atiku’s court challenge.

The minister also pointed at Atiku’s posters which had resurfaced in Abuja in recent times as part of the plot by the PDP candidate to cause crisis.

Atiku has already denied the claims.

But Mohammed said his denial of both developments is in realisation that the actions have grave implications.

The minister who was accompanied by former Atiku’s media aide and Senior Special Assistant (Media & Publicity), Garba Shehu, to the conference, therefore warned the former vice president to desist from overheating the polity as government will not tolerate it.

Mohammed said the posters and the hiring of US lobbyists had triggered questions about what the former vice president is up to, saying: “Is he starting a fresh campaign after the elections have been won and lost? Has he rescinded his decision to challenge the results of the presidential election in court, perhaps after realising that the results he claimed to have obtained from the INEC back server are cooked? Is he now going for self-help? What really is Atiku’s motive?”

On Atiku’s denial of the accusations, the Federal Government’s spokesman noted: “If the media reports are right, it means that the former vice president has suddenly realised the grave implication of his actions, hence has decided to beat a quick retreat before it is too late. As a self-avowed democrat, he should realise that the only lawful channel for challenging the result of an election is through the courts.

“Resorting to self-help, as he seems to be doing now, is an act of desperation and the consequences are dire. There is no doubt that the PDP presidential candidate, out of desperation, is thinking of replicating the Venezuelan model right here in Nigeria. But he should realise that Nigeria is not Venezuela, and that the situations in both countries are not the same.”

The minister affirmed that President Buhari won the February 23 presidential elections fair and square, with a margin of 3,928,869 votes, noting that the election’s credibility was attested to by local and foreign observers.

The minister was of the view that Atiku has the right to do whatever is lawful to challenge the outcome of that election, adding: “but he cannot get it through the back door what he couldn’t get through the front door. That will be a pipe dream.

“If he believes hiring a foreign lobbying firm will advance his quest, we wish him the best of luck. But seeking US recognition as the winner of an election that he lost by almost four million votes is unconscionable. Recall, gentlemen, that after the result of the presidential election was announced, the US joined other countries to congratulate President Buhari.”

Mohammed further stated: “Yes, Alhaji Atiku has lost an election. But he will not be the first or the last person to lose an election, and he should realise that losing an election is not the end of the world. He has challenged the result of the election in court. That’s just as well.

“However, he should not give the impression that he does not have confidence in the judicial process, which is what resorting to self-help implies. He should stop overheating the polity and quit trying to instigate a political crisis in Nigeria. No citizen, no matter how highly placed, is above the laws of the land. Enough is enough!”

However, in a statement issued in Abuja by Kola Ologbondiyan, PDP national publicity secretary, the party’s national leadership also rejected in its entirety, the declaration by the Buhari presidency that Atiku is ‘lucky to be walking free,’ noting that such “is inciting and brings to the fore the unwholesome intention of the APC-led administration against Atiku for seeking to retrieve his stolen mandate at the court.”

The party noted that the series of orchestrations against Atiku and the PDP by agents of the Federal Government, officials of the presidency and the Buhari Media Organisation (BMO) expose “a well-coordinated plot, which includes a resort to unfounded claims of links with a foreign lobby group, to attempt to frame Atiku, cause tension and ultimately derail the recovery of the stolen mandate at the presidential election tribunal.”

The PDP NWC added: “Such orchestration are also targeted at instilling fear, cause apprehension in the citizenry and create opening to further suppress genuine public opinion and the course of justice in the quest by Atiku and the PDP to restore the will of the people.

“Part of the motive is to use lies, fabrications, threats and sponsoring of Atiku campaign posters to portray Atiku and the PDP as being desperate and ready to subvert the rules in the pursuit of our mandate; and by so doing discredit our candidate in the eyes of the judiciary and the public in general.

“This explains why agents of the APC-led government fabricated and pushed into the public space, bogus and laughable claims that Atiku paid $30,000 to a US lobby group to assist in the quest to reclaim our mandate only for the Federal Government and the presidency to turn around to feast on the fabrications with threats against Atiku. “

The PDP called on Nigerians to take copious note of threats by the presidency through the Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Social Media, Lauretta Onochie, to jail Atiku based on trumped up allegations, while describing him as “one who is lucky to be walking free”.

It further said: “Nigerians now know who to hold responsible should any harm come to Atiku, his family or any member of the PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation (PPCO) in the course of the pursuit of the mandate at the tribunal.

“Moreover, it is instructive to state that the PDP and Atiku do not need any foreign lobby group to prove our case before the tribunal as Nigerians themselves have been at the forefront of this pursuit, especially with our overwhelming evidence before the court.”

The PDP, therefore, cautioned the APC-led Federal Government to allow the tribunal to judiciously carry out its responsibilities without hindrance.