The National Leader of the All Progressives Congress,
Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, has raised the alarm over a plot by
some people to pit him against President Muhammadu
Buhari.
Tinubu said this in a statement by his media office while
responding to a report by an online medium.
The medium had claimed that Tinubu accused Buhari of
moving against the party by helping Senator Bukola
Saraki to emerge as Senate President.
However, Tinubu said he had never made a public
statement about the National Assembly since Saraki and
Yakubu Dogara emerged as Senate President and the
Speaker of the House of Representatives respectively.
The former governor of Lagos State said he could never
insult the President or castigate a government that he
helped to form.
The statement read, “The story first published on an
online news site and later parroted by other online news
outlet is an example of irresponsible journalism. This
story has no source. It is a blatant fabrication to serve
the interest of its sponsors. Tinubu has not spoken about
the Senate election. This story is a perverse fiction. Not
journalism.
“He has never said these lies so wrongly attributed to
him. There is no chance he will ever utter such words
against President Buhari, a man he worked very hard for
to become President, along with millions of Nigerians who
voted. Tinubu would not accuse the President of plotting
his own injury. If anything, he is alarmed by how this may
impair the government’s substantive reform agenda.
“It is a mischievous attempt to drive a wedge between
Tinubu and Buhari. There is no need to try to put words
in Tinubu’s mouth. He will talk when and if it is
necessary. His major preoccupation now is how
Nigerians can support President Buhari and his
administration to achieve the reform and change
promised during the election.”
Tinubu’s media aide, Mr. Sunday Dare, also denied
reports that Saraki visited Tinubu in Lagos recently.
Dare said Tinubu had been in France since last week and
was going to London before returning to Nigeria. He,
therefore, stated that it was impossible for Tinubu to be in
two places at once.
He said, “The story about Senator Saraki visiting Bola
Tinubu at his home in Lagos is a total fabrication. It’s a
lie. During the time alleged in the story, Asiwaju Tinubu
was overseas in France to condole a family friend. Thus
it’s physically impossible for Tinubu to have received
anybody at his home in Lagos.”
In a separate statement, a group, the Patriotic Northern
Coalition for Justice, Peace and Equity has advised the
APC to be wary of some politicians within the party
plotting to undermine and marginalise Tinubu.
The national coordinator of the coalition, Alhaji
Babangida Sule, said Tinubu remains the leader of the
party and a force to reckon with in the South-West.
Sule warned that any attempt to marginalise Tinubu
could destroy the party.
He said, “Politicians are already strategising for 2019 and
they will stop at nothing to achieve their aim. Some of
them are in the APC and we have discovered that part of
their aims is to undermine the party’s chieftain, Bola
Ahmed Tinubu, because they see him as a stumbling
block.
“But we the Patriotic Northern Coalition won’t allow them
because we are still grateful to Tinubu for what he did for
the North in the 2015 general election.”
Punch