See the PDP past that will work against Atiku

Atiku Abubakar

Abiodun Nejo, Ado Ekiti

The National Adviser, South West, Buhari/Osinbajo National Support Committee, Olusegun Osinkolu, on Wednesday said the corruption that characterised the 16 years of Peoples Democratic Party‘s rule in Nigeria would be an albatross around the neck of the party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar.

Osinkolu said President Muhammadu Buhari who is the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress remained the best option for the country in view of his commitment to fight and end corruption and as well make Nigerians regain their respect globally.

The APC chieftain spoke during a meeting with party members from the 56 wards in Ekiti North Senatorial District. The meeting was held in Ayede Ekiti.

He appealed to aggrieved members of the party in the district to put the past behind them and work for the victory of all APC candidates in the 2019 elections.

Osinkolu said a second term in office would afford Buhari the opportunity to consolidate on democracy gains for Nigerians.

He said, “The PDP knows that the issue of corruption will work against Atiku, because up until now, no court has cleared him of the allegations that the Petroleum Technology Development Fund and Bureau of Public Enterprises put under him as Vice President under Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration were not badly managed.

“Under PDP’s 16 years where Atiku served as vice president, $16bn was spent on power sector, despite that, Nigeria was in darkness. Nigerians voted against PDP in 2015 elections because of corruption and they chose President Buhari, a man they could trust.

“So, the salient question is – has PDP changed? Nigerians cannot return to the era when our monies were being looted by a few people. President Buhari promised that Nigeria’s monies will be for Nigerians and he is doing just that.

“It will be a great miscalculation for Nigerians who suffered for 16 years under PDP to turn around and bring the party back to power. I know such would not happen because Nigerians are wiser now.”

…another faults call for President’s disqualification

Kamarudeen Ogundele, Abuja

The Buhari Media Organisation has described the call by Alhaji Buba Galadima for the disqualification of President Muhammadu Buhari as the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress in the 2019 general elections as an expression of frustration and crass ignorance.

The group stated this on Wednesday in its reaction to Galadima’s call on the Independent National Electoral Commission to disqualify Buhari for receiving N1.22bn from Nigerian farmers.

Galadima had said the farmers’ gift to the President contravened the provision of the Electoral Act.

In a statement signed by Niyi Akinsiju (Chairman) and Cassidy Madueke (Secretary), the BMO said Galadima was uninformed about the Electoral Act for faulting the N100 individual donation of members of an association.

The statement read, “The farmers and fertiliser producers are not corporate entities and neither are they registered corporations, and certainly not captured in the Electoral Act.

“So for Galadima, a supposedly educated person and politician, to ask for disqualification of President Buhari on the basis of their donation, is engagement in petty talks.

“Is Galadima rewriting the law on who and what to contribute to campaign fund?

“He apparently forgets that President Buhari enjoys mass appeal and popularity among the Nigerian poor and downtrodden who he is elevating to higher economic levels from the extreme poverty to which they were pushed into by the collective irresponsibility of the Peoples Democratic Party governments of many years.”

The group also described the PDP’s spokesperson’s allegation that security agencies were after the lawmakers who heckled Buhari at the presentation of the 2019 budget proposal as “a figment of his imagination and the product of a troubled mind.”

It added that Buhari was a magnanimous person with a heart of gold, who despite Galadima’s rouble rousing, “still keeps his daughter as one of his aides in the Presidency.”