National leader of the All Progressives Congress, (APC) and former governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, yesterday raised fresh alarm of an alleged plot to kill him.
In a statement issued by his Media Aide, Sunday Dare, Tinubu said barely two weeks before the March 28 presidential election, fresh plots by the Presidency and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) hardliners to stop the momentum of the APC presidential candidate, Gen Muhammadu Buhari, have been uncovered. This novel strategy, according to him, is believed to be the outcome of a desperate calculation, which is to attack on multiple fronts, one of them is a plan to kill Tinubu.
Dare said the PDP and the Presidency had allegedly tried to fracture the APC by offering Tinubu the position of vice president in an interim government if he would agree to part ways with Buhari. It was gathered that as soon as Tinubu rebuffed the offer to participate in the interim scheme, the Presidency decided that silencing and if necessary neutralizing him would do the magic. This allegation, the PDP said, is a lie.
“The APC National leader has caused President Jonathan’s team countless headaches this campaign season and he is being perceived as the linchpin of the APC and its successful electoral strategy. They also consider him one of the government’s most prolific and able critics due to his long -standing and often strident critiques of Jonathan government policies, from economic development to national security.
“They believe that without Tinubu’s efforts, the successful merger of the political parties into the All Progressives Congress, APC, would not have occurred and they would not be facing possible defeat at the hands of this new party.
“The PDP faces its stiffest competition ever in 16 years and the person they blame for this predicament is Tinubu. He is the major actor seen as the strategic mind of the new party and one person who must be stopped at all cost. General Buhari has since been penciled down for similar character assassination and vicious insults alongside other leaders of the APC,” he said.
Dare also said, “the agenda to tackle Tinubu and weaken his political influence nation-wide and to undermine his leadership in Southwestern politics can be said to have gone into overdrive.
“The first part of the strategy is to dredge previously discredited claims of illicit wealth with the hope of silencing Tinubu or lessening his public image. However, they fear this public relations attack may be too soft as Tinubu has been taken before the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and the case against him had been dismissed. If this attack does not deter his party activities, the Presidency and PDP are prepared to take more drastic action if they believe it necessary to win the election by throwing the APC into disarray.
“This part of the plot has two options. The first is to employ trained snipers to attack Tinubu or assassinate him outrightly. This plan is consistent with the warning made by former President Olusegun Obasanjo in his now famous 2014 Letter to President Jonathan. Those within the PDP favouring this approach argued that when Chief Bola Ige (SAN), former Attorney-General of the Federation/Minister of Justice, a powerful politician was murdered, heavens did not fall even though the then President is a Yoruba man. The second option is craftier. The PDP will seek to resuscitate the case of the murder of Funso Williams, a former Lagos State gubernatorial candidate, by blaming Tinubu for the killing. They are already coaching inmates and others. They are offering them the promise of early release and money if they will make statements implicating Tinubu in the Williams’ murder. The Presidency intends to rush through this process with the hope of putting Tinubu out of circulation by trapping him in a contrived criminal process until the elections are over. Tinubu is not taking these revelations lightly knowing well the capacity of this government for devilish acts.
“For the party that boasts it will rule Nigeria for 60 years, it has become an unexpected season of political desperation. The PDP is worried that on March 28, they will discover that they have fallen 44 years short of their dynastic goal. By all accounts, this has caused them to consider very drastic plots and schemes,” he said.
He stated that Nigerians were confronted with a ruling party willing to descend to the lowest to win elections. Perceived political enemies are being hunted. Trumped-up allegations are being manufactured daily from the government factory of lies to taint the leading figures in the APC.
Meanwhile, the PDP has reacted to the allegation. Speaking with Daily Sun on phone, National Publicity Secretary of the ruling party, Olisa Metuh, dismissed Tinubu’s alarm as a hallucination of a man deserving of urgent medical attention.
Metuh said: “Our response is simple: Did he speak from Bourdillon, or from a psychiatric hospital? We are asking, whether it is well with Tinubu. We are worried because this is a form of hallucination and we call for urgent medical attention.
“This isn’t politics; we call on Nigerians to come to his aid, immediately. He needs attention,” Metuh said.
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