Tinubu Did Not Attack Buhari With Petrol Scarcity, Naira Redesign Comment – Campaign Council

The Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has said that the comment made by its presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, on Wednesday about petrol scarcity and redesign of naira notes was not an attack on President Muhammadu Buhari.

Tinubu had at Ogun State APC presidential rally, which held at MKO Abiola International Stadium, Abeokuta, alleged that the current scarcity of petrol is a ploy to sabotage the forthcoming general elections.

There have been long queues at filling stations across the country as petrol scarcity persist.

Tinubu also said that increase in the price of petrol and redesign of Naira will not be hinderance to his victory.

“They don’t want this election to hold. They want to sabotage it. Will you allow them?”, he asked the party supporters,” Tinubu had said.

“They have started coming up with the issue of ‘no fuel’. Don’t worry, if there is no fuel, we will trek to cast the vote.

“If you like increase price of fuel, hide the fuel or change the ink on the naira notes, we will win the election,” he added.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) PCC had tackled Tinubu for his comment, adding that he was trying to be clever, so as to exonerate himself from the failures of Buhari’s administration.

But in a statement on Thursday, the Director, Media & Publicity APC PCC, Bayo Onanuga, said that the former Lagos State Governor “was only adverting government’s attention to the sabotage being carried out by some Fifth Columnists in the system, possibly working in cahoots with the PDP.”

Onanuga noted that for a presidential candidate, who cares about the suffering of Nigerian people, Tinubu has a duty to warn government that its efforts to make life better for Nigerians are being sabotaged on several fronts.

According to him, the APC presidential candidate “only re-echoed what is well known and acknowledged, even by President Buhari himself at different fora: That there are Fifth Columnists in and outside of government who often throw spanners in the works against good intentions and programmes of the government.”

“For the records, Asiwaju Tinubu during APC campaign rally at Abeokuta on Wednesday, in his statement, did not mention, blame or accuse President Muhammadu Buhari for the current challenges in the country.

“Asiwaju Tinubu was only adverting 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 Governor 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 they are dispensing the old notes, just a few days to the January 31 deadline.

“Similarly, Asiwaju Tinubu is aware of the salutary efforts by President Buhari to end the fuel queues, by chairing a 14-man panel. Yet the queues and agony continue,” Onanuga said.

The spokesperson averred that as a patriotic and compassionate leader, Tinubu will not stomach seeing ordinary Nigerians being made to face excessive difficulties over mundane issues due to activities of petrol and currency hoarders.

“As a proud leader of the APC, Asiwaju Tinubu would not also look indifferent as his party and the government get dirtied with black brush at a critical time like this, whether he is 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 Asiwaju said in Abeokuta, these orchestrated hardships will not stop his impending victory come 25 February. 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,” he stated.