APC tackles Atiku for claiming Tinubu used millions to rattle opposition parties

The All Progressives Congress (APC) Party has tackled former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar for claiming that the President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu was paying certain opposition leaders a whopping 50 Million Naira each to discombobulate opposition parties in the country.

In a statement released by the Party Spokesman, Felix Morka on Tuesday, stated that Atiku without shred of evidence continued to point fingers at the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the festering rot in his party, and spectacular dysfunction of opposition parties generally.

It also revealed that the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2023 presidential election, at a conference on Strengthening Democracy in Nigeria held in Abuja on Monday, warned that the nation’s democracy was somewhat imperiled by judicial involvement in electoral matters.
The Party said, “It was in the Atiku era as Vice President, particularly in 2003 and 2007, that the PDP conducted the worst elections in our political history. We can not possibly forget how Atiku’s PDP heavy-handedly captured most South-West states and vowed to remain in power for 60 years.

“It was in those same years that Atiku’s former boss and then President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, infamously described election as a “do or die affair” in a desperate attempt to annex Lagos.

“If democracy was neither derailed nor endangered in those perilous days, is it now that elections are by far freer, fairer and more credible that Nigeria risks losing democracy?, the Party asked.
APC noted that the judicial branch of government is a constitutional creation like the executive and legislative branches with its constitutionally defined powers to adjudicate disputes among citizens and between citizens and the state.

It added that Atiku cannot wish away or seek to abolish enshrined power of the courts to intervene in civil disputes, including electoral disputes, in cases where the authority of the court is validly invoked by a litigant.

“It is a thing of irony that Atiku, who is Nigeria’s most prolific electoral litigator, would make such a ludicrous claim that judicial involvement in electoral matters is a threat to democracy.
“His criticism of the courts and the electoral process rings hollow given his long history of using the courts to further his political agenda. It’s time for him to take a step back and let the democratic process unfold without his interference”.

The Party said Nigeria’s democracy is far stronger than Atiku’s political ambitions. “We deserve better than petty politicking and alarmist rhetoric from an elder statesman. Atiku should focus on rebuilding his party and offering constructive solutions to Nigeria’s challenges.

“As a veteran politician, one would expect Atiku to understand that while democracy may be about winning election, it is, more importantly, about respecting the will of the electorate and working towards the greater good of all.
It pressed further that Atiku’s allegation that the APC-led administration was paying out 50 Million Naira to some opposition figures is simply bogus and laughable. “Atiku knows that his political desperation is responsible for the PDP’s catastrophic disintegration.

“Peddling rumors and unsubstantiated allegations should be beneath anyone in the standing of an elder statesman, a former Vice President and a serial contestant for the exalted office of President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

“The bizarre suggestion by opposition figures like Atiku, Peter Obi, and recently, aggrieved leaders like Mallam Nasir El-Rufai that our great Party may be complicit in the internal corrosion of opposition parties is pitiful, and only an incompetent alibi for their crass failure to manage their own affairs.

“They cannot govern their parties but tout their ability to govern Africa’s most populous country. As discerning citizens, Nigerians know better than to be distracted by the false alarm and hollow allegations of desperate politicians whose only goal is shore up their political relevance in the build up to 2027 general elections”, the Party concluded.