…Ex-Lagos Gov’s Attacks On Atiku Done To ‘Spice Up’ 2023 Campaigns, APC Reacts

The Atiku/Okowa Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) has accused the All Progressives Congress (APC) of shying away from its ‘woeful’ performances and campaigning with the Federal Government’s projects in Lagos State.

The APC presidential candidate Bola Tinubu – a former governor of the ex-Nigerian capital – is campaigning on his records in Lagos which he says is a testament to what he can do if elected as the country’s leader next year.

But a spokesperson of the Council Charles Aniagwu has faulted the claims, accusing the ruling party of performing badly at the national level.

“The level of insecurity was democratised to the extent that every part of the country became a killing field. Those are the things APC can do. And because they don’t want us to talk about it, you can see how they always run away from their national and abysmal failure,” he said Monday while fielding questions on Channels Television’s Politics Today.

“So, if he thinks that the federal roads that were built by the Federal Government from Ikeja through Anthony – of course having passed Maryland and then you pass through the Third Mainland Bridge completed by the Babangida administration to the Island – that those are the things they would be showing us, we would remind them that those things were there even before Tinubu became the governor of Lagos State.”

As far as he is concerned, “Since they (APC) have performed so woefully at the national level and they don’t want to stay with their records at the national level, we would accompany them on that train to Lagos so that we would discuss Lagos.”

He said the PDP administration established organisations such as the Economic Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), introduced some bank reforms, and gathered some of the best brains in the country to work for the government.

Meanwhile, a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council (PCC), Ayo Oyalowo has downplayed recent attacks by the party’s presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu’s on his counterpart of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar.

Tinubu, last Friday, mocked Atiku over the latter’s multiple attempts to occupy the number one political office in the country.

Atiku, aged 76, previously lost presidential bids in 1993, 2007, 2011, 2015 and 2019.

Oyalowo, who made a live appearance on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Monday, argued that Tinubu’s political jibes on Atiku were simply to “spice up” the 2023 campaign.

However, spokesperson for the PDP PCC, Charles Aniagwu, in his response, pointed out that President Muhammadu Buhari had similarly contested for president four times prior to his win in 2015 via the newly amalgamated APC.

“Even Charles knows that he is just making a mountain out of a molehill. Normally, in political contests, there are necessary times you throw jibes,” Oyalowo said.

“We have seen about two, three times the two men have met at the airport on different trips and we’ve seen how convivial they were. So, the jibes are just necessary to spice up the contest.

“It is not the content; the content here is, what are we going to do that we believe Atiku cannot do? That is the issue here.”

The APC campaigner alleged that Atiku as Vice President under the Olusegun Obasanjo administration, Federal Government-owned companies such as the Aluminium Smelter Company of Nigeria (ALSCON), Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL), and Nigeria Airways, were undervalued and sold in the government’s privatisation efforts.

But Aniagwu stated that while Atiku was in power, the PDP-led government established the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Crimes Commission (ICPC).

“I would remind him (Oyalowo) that the PDP administration embarked on bank consolidation to the extent that today, when you put your funds in the bank, no matter what happens to that bank, your fund is safe,” the campaign spokesman said.

“I will also remind him about reforms in the pension sector. A number of times, they talk about money in the Excess Crude Account (ECA) as if that was the tree that grew in one forest.

“That money in the ECA was made possible because Obasanjo/Atiku administration was able to realise that we were getting some funds far in excess of what was budgeted, and rather than wasting it, we needed to save for a rainy day.”

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The Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has said that it did not apologize to the former Governor of Cross Rivers State, Mr. Donald Duke, for erroneous usage of his picture in a documentary on the presidential candidate of APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.

The Director of Media and Publicity of the Council, Mr. Bayo Onanuga, in a statement issued Monday clarified that a purported statement currently in circulation credited to him did not originate from him.

He insisted that the campaign council did not issue any statement on behalf of Tinubu to apologize to Duke.

Onanuga therefore urged the media and members of the public to disregard the statement as a fake news designed to create confusion and mislead the public.


He said “Our attention has been drawn to a press statement currently in circulation credited to the Director of Media and Publicity, Mr. Bayo Onanuga.

“In the said statement, Mr. Onanuga was reported to have apologised to Mr. Donald Duke for an error in the use of his picture in a documentary on Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

“We want to categorically state that the Directorate of Media and Publicity of the APC Presidential Campaign Council did not authorise the said statement and Mr. Onanuga didn’t issue any statement on behalf of the campaign council and our principal, Asiwaju Tinubu today.”

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The Osun State House of Assembly has maintained that the description of Osun State as the “State of the Virtuous” still stands.

The Osun Assembly also announced that while it is aware of a court judgment in effect recognizing “Osun State”, the Assembly, pending the determination and exhaustion of all legal means would not be drawn into the matter.

The newly sworn-in governor of the state, Ademola Adeleke in his inauguration address on Sunday, November 27, 2022, had renamed the state, Osun State as opposed to The State of Osun and changed its description from “The State of the Virtuous” to “The State of the Living Spring.”

The announcement was made known in a release by Moshood Kunle Akande, Chairman, House Committee on Media and Publicity on Monday in Osogbo.

The release read thus: “The State of Osun House of Assembly having reviewed the inaugural speech of the Governor and the activities of the inauguration hereby resolves as follows:

“The usage of the State Anthem, Crest and Flag is an enactment of law and as such, its usage is a matter of law and not choice.

“The enactment “State of Osun Anthem, Crest and Flag Law, 2012” assented to on the 18th of December, 2012 contained in Schedule I, II, III, IV and V, which carefully details every component of this law is not in ambiguity.

“Schedule I is the State Anthem, Schedule II has to do with the State Crest, Schedule III is the symbolic significance of the elements in the crest, Schedule IV is The Flag and Schedule, the symbolic significance of the elements in the UN

“Lastly, while we are aware of a court judgment in effect recognizing “Osun State”, the Assembly, pending the determination and exhaustion of all legal means would not be drawn into this matter.

“However, the State shall and will continue to be described as the State of the Virtuous (Ipinle Omoluabi).”

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