Atiku Abubakar, has returned from the United Kingdom
By Emma Ogbuehi
The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Atiku Abubakar, has returned from the United Kingdom.
The visit, according to Atiku, had to do with critical meetings connected to his presidential ambition.
Ex-presidential aide, Reno Omokri, shared the video of Atiku’s arrival on his verified Twitter page on Friday morning. Omokri in introducing the video, wrote, “The Next President of Nigeria (God Willing) Is Back in Nigeria After a Most Successful Trip To The UK”.
In it, Atiku was in the company of Akwa Ibom Governor Udom Emmanuel; Sokoto Governor, Aminu Tambuwal; former Kogi Senator Dino Melaye; former National PDP National Chairman, Uche Secondus; erstwhile Aviation Minister, Osita Chidoka; former Senate President, Bukola Saraki and his aides.
While the former Vice President was away, there were insinuations on the actual reasons for his absence.
In particular, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) had called on him, to come clean about his health and alleged corruption issues using Special Purpose Vehicles after he became Vice-President in 1999.
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The APC made the call following the recent release of an audio clip by a whistleblower where allegations were made against Atiku
The Director of Media and Publicity of the APC Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) of the (PCC), Bayo Onanuga, in a statement, said if Atiku has some modicum of honour, he ought to have stepped down from the race.
He said: “It’s time for Atiku Abubakar, the 76 year-old presidential candidate of Peoples Democratic Party to come clean over two issues clouding his campaign: his health status and his scandalous confession of how he colluded with his former boss, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo to fleece the Nigerian treasury, using the Special Purpose Vehicles after he became Vice-President in 1999.
“If Atiku has some modicum of honour, he ought to have stepped down from the race that he is bound to lose again, following the release of his audio clip, in which he provides a vivid explanation into the modus operandi of his legendary corruption.”
Onanuga said since the revelation, there had been no notable response from Atiku’s camp about the disturbing revelation, except for a futile attempt to disown the whistleblower, Michael Achimugu, a media consultant to Atiku.
He noted that Nigerians are appalled that Atiku and PDP are so shameless that they have shrugged off the bombshell.
Onanuga implored Nigerians to hold Atiku to account over the shocking revelation by rejecting him at the polls in February.
He added: “Atiku is also not talking about his health status even when his hirelings daily make futile attempts to divert public attention to his main rival by cooking up lies upon lies. Whereas Atiku is the candidate that Nigerians should be sorely worried about.
“The lies of several years and the various diversionary tactics are no longer sustainable. Atiku’s edifice of lies is about to crash on him. The PDP presidential candidate is certainly not okay, the papering efforts notwithstanding.”
“We have it on good authority that Atiku indeed fell ill, while missing on the field. He was indeed in the UK for some medical help, though handlers camouflage that he was there on the invitation of some British officials at Whitehall, in a mimic of the earlier visit of the APC rival, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
“Despite the efforts by his handlers to showcase Atiku as healthy and physically fit to endure the rigours of the presidential campaign, pictures from rallies have belied this. Campaign pictures sometimes showed him being helped to descend steps at stadia. Sometimes, he walked with apparent handicap, dragging his feet.”
Onanuga said a man who wants to rule Nigeria and wants Nigerians to repose some trust in him must immediately and honestly address the twin issues of his health and the alleged corruption levelled against him.
However, the PDP declared that Tinubu is unfit to lead over 200 million Nigerians as president.
The Spokesperson of the Atiku/Okowa Campaign Organisation, Kola Ologbondiyan, in a statement, said it was imperative to observe that its campaign had focused on issues and refrained from Tinubu’s appalling health issues prior to the ignoble public dance of the Tinubu/Shettima campaign.
According to him, since Tinubu by himself has opened the channels for Nigerians to examine his ill-health, “we have no other option than to further expose that the APC candidate must be suffering from manifest Parkinson’s disease accompanied with incontinence.”
Ologbondiyan explained that Parkinson’s disease is a brain disorder whose symptoms include shaking hands, stiffness of limbs, difficulty with coordination, problem with balance when walking; articulation disorder, memory problems, as well as general mental and physical weakness which are all being witnessed in the APC presidential candidate.
He said: “This perhaps accounts for the desperation, the endless gaffes, the articulation errors, the incoherence, the many blunders and disconnection from reality for which Asiwaju Tinubu has become the butt of weird jokes among Nigerians and internationally.”