The controversy involving Atiku Abubakar and President Muhammadu Buhari over the outcome of the 2019 presidential election has continued garner serious reactions.
The reactions it is gaining are coming from both the ruling party and the main opposition party as well as from their supporters.
Meanwhile, the National Working Committee (NWC) of the PDP has accused the ruling APC and the presidency of plots to set up its presidential candidate in the recently concluded general elections, Atiku Abubakar, Daily Trust reports.
The PDP, however, said no amount of fabrication or threat by the APC-led Federal Government would stop Atiku from reclaiming “his mandate” at the tribunal. INEC had declared the APC candidate, President Muhammadu Buhari, as winner of the February 23, 2019, polls, but Atiku is in court challenging the outcome of the election.
The PDP, in a statement yesterday by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, said the APC-led government was among other things, sponsoring the printing and circulation of Atiku’s campaign posters at a time the elections were already over to portray him and the PDP as being desperate and to discredit him in the eyes of the judiciary.
Recall that Atiku’s posters had resurfaced in Abuja the Capital of Nigeria some days ago. The posters opened a new phase of accusation and counter-accusation between the two main political parties. Although, Atiku in his reaction disowned the posters.
The PDP statement also read, “Such orchestration is 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 Abubakar and the PDP to restore the will of the people. The PDP, therefore, cautions the APC-led Federal Government to allow the tribunal to judiciously carry out its responsibilities without let or hindrance, as well as stop their unrelenting plot to overheat the system and derail the course of justice as such will all come to naught,” the party said.
In a related development, a chieftain of the PDP, Com. Timi Frank, has accused President Muhammadu Buhari and the leadership of the APC of plotting to arrest Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, on trumped up charges of treasonable felony.
Frank, in a statement yesterday in Abuja, said the plot was to give the Wazirin Adamawa the MKO Abiola treatment. He claimed that the grand plot was to arrest Atiku on arrival from his vacation abroad and clamp him into jail for alleged treason. He disclosed that the sole aim of wanting Atiku out of the way at all cost was borne out of desperation.
“The cabal, having realised that Buhari’s purported victory during the last presidential election cannot withstand forensic judicial scrutiny, which the former Atiku is now poised to unravel before the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal,” he said.
The Bayelsa-born political activist, however, warned against acts capable of eclipsing democracy in the country which might lead to untold consequences for all Nigerians.He called on patriotic Nigerians and members of the international community, especially the Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar Peace Committee, the United States and the United Kingdom not to gloss over events of monumental proportions currently being allegedly incubated in the interest of peace and democratic sustainability in the country.
Atiku and the PDP are challenging the outcome of the election in court. The matter is yet to be decided.
What are your thoughts on this story?