Atiku accuses Tinubu of lying to deny meeting with G5 Governors
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Atiku Abubakar has accused Bola Tinubu of deploying treachery and subterfuge to grab presidential power on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), all the way to Aso Rock which joins hands with propagandists to amplify his tricks.
Atiku, presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), said contrary to the denial from the Tinubu Campaign, he indeed met with the five PDP Governors (G5) in London last week.
The G5 – Governors Nyesom Wike (Rivers), Samuel Ortom (Benue), Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia), Seyi Makinde (Oyo), and Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Enugu) – reportedly struck a deal with Tinubu at the meeting to support his candidacy.
Both mainstream and fringe media published the meeting and the agreement, which was given oxygen by Muhammadu Buhari’s New Media Assistant Bashir Ahmad, who posted it on Twitter.
“The offer put forward by the five Governors was fantastically positive. That will definitely help us [APC and Buhari] to seal our imminent victory in 2023. Let’s do it together,” Ahmad posted.
The Tinubu Campaign later denied the report. Both Ortom and Wike have also denied the G5 agreed with Tinubu to back him – but without denying the meeting.
And Atiku is not taking it, at least the part that a meeting was held.
“I make bold to state that if the G5 never met with Tinubu, Wike would have been the one to deny it,” Atiku said in a statement he issued through his spokesman Phrank Shaibu titled, “Tinubu wants to ride on treachery to the Villa”.
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Tinubu let it fly three days before denial
“Curiously, while the news of the meeting, which was reported by several credible media houses was trending, two spokesmen for the APC Presidential Campaign, Festus Keyamo and Femi Fani-Kayode, took to social media to celebrate the support Tinubu would be getting from the G5,” Atiku added, per The PUNCH.
He said it took the Tinubu camp three days to deny the meeting and it is “also awfully coincidental that the G5 and Tinubu all decided to travel to London at the same time and depart at the same time with Tinubu proceeding to Saudi Arabia and the other Governors returning to Nigeria.”
Atiku argued Tinubu denied the meeting because “the details of the meeting are too messy and the APC candidates in the five states are fighting back.
“All the G5 Governors are on the ballot except for Governor Wike and there is a fight back from the APC governorship and National Assembly candidates from the affected states where the G5 Governors hold sway.”