Phrank Shaibu, Special Assistant on Public Communication (SAPCO) to Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the 2023 Presidential Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), said President Bola Tinubu, by rejecting the EU report, has ruled out the possibility of electoral reform.
This is just as he advised Tinubu’s supporters not to interfere with the work of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal by Atiku Abubakar’s Special Assistant on Public Communication (SAPCO).
Tinubu was the Presidential Candidate of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) in the 2023 presidential election.
Shaibu said in a statement that the warning had become crucial following the sponsored demonstration organised by Tinubu’s supporters at the European Union headquarters in Abuja following the report’s publication by the EU Observer Mission that showed how the election failed the credibility test.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) received a poor rating from the EU assessment for its handling of the election. However, Tinubu’s supporters, including his spokesperson Dele Alake, the former activist Festus Keyamo, and the other person named in the study, Femi Fani-Kayode, denied the conclusions.
Following that, a group of APC supporters stormed the EU offices and were provided with complete police protection to carry out the protest.
However, Shaibu said, “We seize this opportunity to warn the Tinubu government and its minions against disrupting the proceedings of the election tribunal as they have shown a clear disdain for the truth by picketing the EU office.
“Recall that in 1999, when the late legendary lawyer, Chief Gani Fawehinmi, sued Tinubu for school certificate forgery, thugs were sponsored to cause protests outside the courthouse. Similarly, when Tinubu was facing charges before the Code of Conduct Tribunal, thugs were sponsored to protest at the trial, all in a bid to intimidate the judiciary.
“We find it curious that the same security agencies which have been issuing statements barring protests were curiously available to provide cover for sponsored pro-government protesters to picket the EU office. We sound a note of warning to the security agencies to be on the alert as the tribunal proceedings wind down. The world is watching.”
Shaibu bemoaned that poverty had worsened and inflation had soared in just 40 days under Tinubu’s leadership.
He continued by saying that the APC was taking advantage of the fact that poverty had made innocent Nigerians vulnerable to deception.
Shaibu stated, “Today, food has become a luxury. The purchasing power of the people has dropped no thanks to an unplanned petrol subsidy removal, which was not accompanied by any form of palliatives. With just N1,000, any riffraff on the street could be handed a t-shirt and placard to engage in protests they know nothing about.
“This is how low Nigeria has sunk low since Tinubu took over the reins of government.”
Shaibu added that Tinubu was running a government of hypocrisy by attributing the APC’s failures to select scapegoats while failing to point fingers at former President Muhammadu Buhari
“Tinubu blamed Godwin Emefiele for the country’s economic woes and ordered his detention while he continues to shower praises on the man who not only appointed Emefiele but gave him a national award. This is the height of hypocrisy,” Atiku’s aide said.
He claimed that Tinubu continued to act haughtily, alienating Nigerians, rather than admitting that the election was flawed.
Atiku’s aide stated, “No one needs to be told that the 2023 presidential election was one of the worst ever conducted in Nigeria’s history. The 2007 election was similarly bad, but at least, the key recipient, President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, admitted the poll was flawed and immediately kicked off electoral reforms. However, Tinubu, by rejecting the EU report, has ruled out the possibility of electoral reform.
“Tinubu is the opposite of a statesman. He claims the 2023 election is the best Nigeria has had since 1999 and continues to draw parallels between it and the epochal June 12, 1993 election by constantly mentioning the name of MKO Abiola and Hope 93.
“This is the height of deception. MKO’s victory was spick and span. MKO Abiola represented the hope of a generation while Tinubu stole the hope of a generation. Tinubu’s renewed hope is nothing but renewed hopelessness, a continuation of Buhari’s eight years of monumental failure. It is simply, as the youths say, ‘renewed surge. We ask Nigerians to tarry a while as we wait for the judiciary to correct the evil that INEC imposed on over 200 million people.”
