President Goodluck Jonathan/Namadi Sambo Presidential Campaign Organisation of the
Peoples Democratic Party has alleged that All Progressive Congress Chief Scribe, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, is plotting to become the President of
Nigeria through the back door.
It said the plot by the former governor,
who is a former governor of Lagos state, was to take over as President of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria in the event that Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) wins the March
28, 2015 presidential election.
Director of Media and Publicity of the
PDP-PCO, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, made this allegation at a news
conference in Abuja on Friday.
He further stressed that the campaign team of the PDP-PCO wishes Buhari long life.
Fani-Kayode said skeletal information
available to the PDP-PCO suggests that the Vice Presidential candidate
of the APC, Prof Yemi Osibanjo, was picked by Tinubu and forced to take
an oath to resign his appointment six months into the new cabinet should
the APC win the elections.
The PDP-PCO further alleged that the party would field Tinubu as Osinbajo’s replacement after the alleged resignation.
Fani-Kayode argued that given the huge
financial war chest being deployed by the leader of the party and his
overbearing influence at single-handedly facilitating the emergence of
Buhari and Osinbajo as the party’s candidates after allegedly failing to
push the Muslim-Muslim ticket, further lends credence to his claim.
He asked Buhari to watch his back, adding
that the alleged gang-up against him and Nigerians was based on the
calculation that his health conditions would deteriorate and lead to his
death, paving way for the vice president to take over power.
Fani-Kayode said, “It should baffle
well-meaning Nigerians why Tinubu has decided to draft Buhari, despite
his age, acrimonious background and questionable health status, into the
presidential race whilst ensuring that his stooge, Prof Osinbajo, was
foisted on the general as vice presidential candidate.
“The reason is that the PDP-PCO wishes to
use this forum to expose the ungodly plan by Tinubu to seize the
presidency of Nigeria by subterfuge.
“You will recall how Tinubu wanted to be
running mate to Buhari in spite of the nationwide resentment for
Muslim-Muslim ticket that he and Buhari planned to foist on their party.
“Senator Tinubu had justified the ticket by saying that competence was the important thing and not the issue of religion.
“But when he and Buhari could not push
through the agenda within the APC, he (Tinubu), after being given the
opportunity to nominate a vice presidential candidate, decided to prop
up his stooge in the person of Prof. Osinbajo.
“Now the real reason Tinubu nominated
Osinbajo has been made known to us and we hereby offer a public service
to the Nigerian people by drawing their national attention to it.
Credible pieces of information at our disposal indicate that Tinubu has
perfected plans to come to power through the back door.
“Tinubu, according to our information,
has compelled Osinbajo to swear to an oath that after six months in
office, he would resign as the vice president, in the unlikely event
that their party wins. The wicked plot, as laid out by them, is to force
Osinbajo to resign for Tinubu to be nominated by Buhari as his
replacement.
“The ultimate objective of this plot is
to ensure that Tinubu becomes President. The script is simple: given the
questionable health of Buhari, Tinubu, who is desperate to be president
for his own selfish reasons, will simply bid his time in the evil
expectation that Buhari will not be able to go the whole hog.
“How wicked can those that hatched this
plan be? How unfair can they be to the North, to Buhari and to
Nigerians? We wish Buhari long life. Senator Tinubu’s dangerous plan is
about getting power. This is sad. No thoroughbred Yoruba man or indeed
Nigerian wants to get power through the misfortune of another person.
“But this is the perfidious path that Tinubu is passing through. This is repugnant.
“It will interest you to know that our
information is strengthened by the very similar act of resignation which
Senator Tinubu had planned to force on Pastor Tunde Bakare which you
can all watch now.
“We will like to show to you some footage
that is on Youtube of Pastor Tunde Bakare’s interview where he openly
admitted that he refused to sign a resignation letter that would have
seen him hand over his vice presidential position had Buhari been
successful in his presidential campaign in 2011.
“Becoming the vice president is not the
destination but becoming the president! The agenda of the cabal within
the APC is with the perceived health challenges of Buhari. They have
told themselves in hushed tones that he has prostate cancer, acute
asthma and that he suffers from dementia. This is their assessment and
not ours. We do not know how true this is or what the nature of his
illness is and neither are we interested. All these allegations of
ill-health, to the cabal provide the justification for their evil plan.”
He said the structures around Buhari
belong to Tinubu and that the actors around him, driving his campaign
behind the scenes are also Tinubu’s men.
He said, “Most of the covert funding for
this campaign comes from Tinubu’s friends outside the country and from
Tinubu himself. So if he becomes President, Buhari will become virtually
incapacitated and he will not be the one running the government. Those
behind this plan would now be waiting for Buhari to pass on. That is
what Tinubu wants to do to the North and to Nigeria.
“This is a wicked and ungodly attempt for
Tinubu not only against the North and the Hausa/Fulani but against the
whole country. We are convinced beyond any reasonable doubt that most
Nigerians are not with this cabal. This is because no sane or rational
person would wish another person evil to actualise his political
ambition.”
Attempts to get the response from the
spokesperson of the APC, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, were unsuccessful as of
the time of filing this report. Calls to his mobile phone indicated that
it was switched off while an e-mail sent to him had yet to be replied.
