Scandals rock PDP, APC presidential candidates

By Ori Martins

At last the best kept secrets about the presidential candidates of the main political parties, the ruling APC and 
 PDP are coming to the open, and many people believe it’s about time. For the APC, this a self inflicted injury. The party clearly ignored the truism that they that live in glass house should throw stones.

The fresh scandals rocking the presidential campaigns of the the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, Senator Ahmed Bola Tinubu, as well as that of the main opposition party, the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, bother on alleged corruption.

The APC presidential spokesperson, Festus Keyamo, raised the current concerns when he petitioned Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission as well as the Code of Conduct Bureau to arrest Atiku over corruption allegations within the next 72 hours.

Keyamo, in his petition, urged the chairmen of those afore-mentioned anti graft agencies to arrest or invite Atiku for questioning over alleged crimes hinged primarily on money laundering, criminal breach of trust, misappropriation, conspiracy and other offences against the code of conduct for public officials.

The APC image maker, who is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, revealed he would head to the courts to seek for injunctions against Atiku’s further participation in the coming election.

According to him, “For about a week now, Nigerians have been in shock over the public revelations of a whistleblower, Mr. Michael Achimugu, who has provided the nation with evidence of letters of appointment by Atiku,
e-mails, documents, audio clips, sworn affidavits done in  the collusion of then President Olusegun Obasanjo, to fleece the country, using ” Special Purposes Vehicle” as conduit”.

Keyamo explained that “Those SPVs were companies Atiku admittedly registered upon assumption of office as the vice president of Nigeria in 1999.

“All these crimes were perpetrated with Obasanjo’s approval, using trusted allies as shareholders and directors. The purpose was to divert government contracts to those companies as consultants and then pay monies to fund the PDP and their private  businesses”.

It did not take time before the PDP presidential spokesperson, Senator Deno Melaye, in what could be described as a reply, also descended heavily on Tinubu, alleging that the APC presidential candidate lacked morality to stand for a national election.

Melaye accused Tinubu of using his Alpha  Beta company to defraud Lagos state when he was the governor of the state between 1999 and 2007. He noted that rather than empowering Lagosians, Tinubu was busy diverting the state’s funds away to other South West states for his selfish ambitions.

Internationally, the PDP spokesperson enthused that Tinubu had case to answer as he was allegedly implicated in a recent drug file in the United States of America, after being made to forfeit over $420,000. He said that, in all cases, the APC presidential candidate stands accused and might be guilty as charged.

Undaunted by the rebuttal by the PDP and to make good his threat to seek leg option to stop Atiku, Keyamo last filed a suit at the Federal High Court, Abuja. No case was fixed for the hearing, but legal experts believe that may never be fully resolved before the election.

Responding, a PDP youth leader in Abia State, Ogochikwu Eke, pointed out that Tinubu is not qualified in anyway to rule Nigeria. “His health is terribly bad. His mental alertness is questionable even anything about his credential is in doubt. And now, the fresh allegations of scandals against him. He is indeed in a mess”, Eke noted.

A shop owner at Ekekwu Owerri, John Ibah said both Atiku and Tinubu are corrupt and so it is expected that Nigerians should shun the two leading presidential candidates and look towards the LP presidential candidate, Peter Obi.

In her submission, Mary Obiana, a Labour Party supporter urged Atiku to withdraw from the race as the comment of Obasanjo about him is damning.

‘The fact remains that if you want to know an applicant who has applied for a job in your organization, you write to his former office or boss to inform you about the applicant.

“Now, Atiku applied to rule Nigeria. We, Nigerians should ask his boss to recommend him to us. Luckily, Obasanjo has done that in his book, Under My Watch. The report is dirty and the meaning is that Atiku is not a good worker. Thus, he must withdraw from’ the presidential race”.
Worried by this development in spite of the Peace Accord the parties signed to eschew personal attacks and focus on issue based campaigns, the National Peace Committee, led by former head of state, Gen. Abdulsalam Abubakar, held a meeting with the party leaders on the need to keep to the terms of the Accord to ensure a peaceful poll.