Former Vice President and presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar on Sunday stated his position on the performance of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led All Progressives Congress (APC) government.
Atiku, who spoke through his Special Assistant on Public Communications, Mr. Phrank Shaibu, said Buhari’s first term in office is a sad reminder of Nigeria’s arrested development since 2015 when his clueless party, the APC came to power.
Shaibu called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to deregister the ruling APC, which, according to him, has metamorphosed from a political party to a ”nest of corrupt politicians’’.
“This was attested to by the party’s National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole who was recently said that once any politician defects to the APC, he or she becomes a saint even if such a person were an armed robber”, the aide said in a statement.
Shaibu said that the most compelling reason for the APC to be de-registered is that it has driven millions of Nigerians deeper into poverty since 2015, when it took over leadership of the country, and spent trillions of naira procuring hunger, darkness and insecurity.
“It is the view of the Presidential Candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar that Nigerians from all walks of life call on the APC to apologize to all Nigerians for bringing them nothing but suffering of unquantifiable proportion since 2015, and to make a solemn pledge not to have anything to do with governance, especially with the February 16, election that is fast approaching,” Shaibu said.
He added that the Buhari administration was only chasing shadows by trying to drag Atiku Abubakar into the mud, which according to him, has now become the natural habitat of APC top leaders.
“President Buhari and his APC are criminal enablers and harborers of looters of our collective patrimony and this document “Buhari’s Hall Of Shame” is a scorecard of failure, incompetence, nepotism and a President’s proclivity to harbouring indicted and other famed thieves of our patrimony.
“Recall that, the former acting Director General of the National Intelligence Agency, Ambassador Mohammed Dauda, in a sworn testimony to the House of Representatives Committee on National Security and Intelligence, revealed that President Buhari’s kitchen cabinet comprising Abba Kyari and former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babagana Kingibe, had pressured him to share the $44 million Ikoyi millions.
“After giving his sworn evidence, Ambassador Dauda was dismissed and has now gone underground. This is President Buhari’s style of fighting corruption.
“The hawks seem to have finally convinced Buhari to frame Atiku in some bogus N156million alleged scam, which they claimed is responsible for the collapse of Bank PHB. Assuming but not conceding that this allegation is correct, can N156million Naira collapse a bank with a reserve portfolio in excess of N25bn? But Nigerians are wiser and I am sure, would resist any devilish plot by some APC crooks who believe that it is either the President wins reelection or our democracy is truncated”.
Continuing, the Special Assistant said, “Nigerians are intelligent enough to know that the allegation of Atiku being responsible for the collapse of BankPHB is balderdash! They also know that the said BankPHB metamorphosed into Keystone Bank which was said to have been acquired by Buhari’s cronies through AMCON last year.
“By this latest allegation of the Federal Government through the office of the Minister Of Information, it is clear that the responsibility of AMCON has been appropriated. In appropriating the responsibility of AMCON. It is therefore no more a matter of speculation that Buhari and his family members are the new owners of Keystone Bank (Former BankPHB)”.
The former Vice President then asked what the Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) was doing before now when it refused to name Atiku as one of those behind the collapse until now that the leaders of APC see that he is just a few days from becoming Nigeria’s president, and wondered whether the revelation is at the instance of the new owners.
“Why was Atiku’s name not mentioned when Bank PHB collapsed? Is it because the APC and its goons know that they will be defeated in next month’s election? Or is the APC government acting on behalf of Buhari’s family who are reportedly the new owners of the bank?” he asked.
The former VP described the Bank PHB story as diversionary and a calculated attempt to divert the attention of Nigerians from the failure of the APC government to deliver dividends of democracy.
”Today, millions of Nigerians, most of them youths, are unemployed, forcing them to become professional beggars who wait with bated breath for FG’s monthly N5,000 handout aimed at bribing them to re-elect the party in the forthcoming elections.
”Talking of infrastructure, despite an ‘investment’ of over N1trillion by the Buhari-led APC administration in infrastructure, the nation’s roads have become death traps and power generation has actually dipped from 4,949 mega watts PDP left in 2015 to less than 3,500 megawatts even though Buhari’s handlers consistently claim that 7,000 mega watts is what is currently being generated,” he said.
Shaibu said the exchange rate of the Naira to the US dollar when the APC assumed office in 2015 was about 170 (official rate) to the dollar. “Today it is 360 to the dollar. What more evidence do we need to know that the APC has been a curse rather than a blessing to our country?”
He said Atiku Abubakar’s policy document focuses on job creation, ensuring security, growing businesses, developing power, and water infrastructure, agriculture and education and how ‘Nigeria’s next president will empower women.
” Unlike Buhari’s policy proposals, our policies outline the goals and methods for developing and revitalizing Nigeria and getting the country to work again,” Shaibu concluded.
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