FG: We have evidence that PDP, Atiku are planning to destabilise Nigeria

...opposition party hits back

Nigeria’s Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed has said the Federal Government has ‘credible’ evidence that the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its presidential candidate in the 2019 elections, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, are doing everything possible to sabotage the current administration, generally overheat the polity and make Nigeria ungovernable.

However, in a reaction Atiku and the PDP challenged the Minister to come up with evidence to back his claim if he has any.

They party urged the Minister to stop playing to the gallery and instead, face the challenge of speaking for a government that has “failed to deliver on the promises it made to the people four years ago.”

Mohammed who made the allegation while speaking in his Oro country home in Irepodun local government area of Kwara State on Friday during the annual twelfth Ramadan lecture, said:
“Our interventions are based on credible evidence, and no government with the kind of evidence that we have, of plans to subvert the power of the state, attack the nation’s economic live wire and generally unleash mayhem on the polity, will keep quiet.

“The security agencies are all alert to their responsibilities and will not sit by and allow anyone to reverse the gains of our democracy under any guise.

“Since our intervention, pseudo and partisan analysts have teamed up with the spokesmen for the main opposition party and its presidential candidate to either exhibit their ignorance or to engage in red herring and name-calling. We are neither distracted nor dissuaded.”

He recalled that the government had the week before raised alarm that either by themselves or via their proxies, the PDP and its presidential candidate were doing everything possible to sabotage the Buhari administration.

“Of course you are aware of similar alarms that have been raised by the police, the military and the DSS”.

In a reaction however, Atiku, in a statement by his spokesperson, Mr. Paul Ibe said Nigerians must learn not to take the Information Minister serious anymore as he is already known for telling lies.

“The man has run out of smart arguments and what he does these days is to make allegations he cannot substantiate.”

Also reacting, the National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Kola Ologbondiyan, chided the minister for what he called an attempt to play to the gallery while dodging “issues pertaining to poor governance and maladministration, his party is famous for.”

He said further that: “Nigerians are tired of a man who keeps running away from the real issues at hand. If the minister has evidence to substantiate what he has been saying, he knows what to do.”

“The federal government has no answers to the numerous challenges facing the nation. Nigerians are daily dying of hardship and all their spokesman can say today is to look for people and party to scapegoat for their failure. The PDP is determined to retrieve its stolen mandate at the tribunal and no amount of lies can distract us from realizing this objective.”