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.”
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