• Says APC governors don’t take instruction from presidential candidate
Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress(APC), Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu has denied instigating the governors on his party’s platform to ignore President Muhammadu Buhari and the Central Bank of Nigeria’s position on the Naira swap policy.
President Buhari in his nationwide broadcast has said the old N200 Naira Notes would remain legal tender till April 10 while the N500 and N1000 old notes ceased to be legal tender.
Nasir El Rufai, Mohammed Badaru Abubakar and Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, Governors of Kaduna, Jigawa and Kano States, respectively have, however, declared that the new and old notes would remain legal tender in their states.
A newspaper had reported that the governors were instigated by the APC standard bearer to openly took a position at variance with President Buhari and the apex bank.
Director, Media & Publicity APC Presidential campaign council, Bayo Onanuga, in a statement, asked Nigerians to disregard the report as he said Tinubu never issued such an order.
The statement read in part: “Our attention has been drawn to a fake viral news published by the Peoples Gazette, claiming Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the APC presidential candidate has asked APC governors to ignore President Muhammadu Buhari’s broadcast and enforce the Supreme Court ruling on the recirculation of old Naira notes.
“The publication by the platform is fake. Tinubu never issued such an order. Mr Dele Alake, the APC-PCC Adviser on Media and Communications never issued such an advisory on behalf of Asiwaju Tinubu.
“The message quoted by Peoples Gazette was being randomly shared on WhatsApp. Mr Alake was not the author. Asiwaju Tinubu has been known, since the currency swap crisis started, to call for calm as the authorities try to find out a solution to the currency crisis. He has offered a six-point suggestion to lessen the anguish our people are facing in trying to get money from the banks.
“He has also held several meetings with President Buhari, his leader over the matter. It is thus inconceivable and unthinkable that he would instruct APC governors to disregard President Muhammadu Buhari’s order on the currency matter.
“Governors who have so far declared this line of action said clearly that they were acting on the ruling of the Supreme Court, the highest court in the land. Asiwaju has had no influence on this decision.
‘Journalists, unless acting on the dictates of political opponents or prosecuting some agenda, should endeavour to confirm authorship of their materials from the Media and Publicity Directorate of the campaign. They can also seek confirmation from the Tinubu Media Office or Mr Alake.”
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