From Paul Osuyi, Asaba
The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Presidential Campaign Council has urged Nigerians not to be distracted by “blackmail” being sponsored by the All Progressive Congress (APC) and its presidential candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
The PDP said that the APC was afraid of the acceptance of its candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, by Nigerians, and has resorted to blackmail in partnership with one Mike Achimugu.
Addressing reporters in Asaba, spokesman of the PDP campaign council Charles Aniagwu said a viral video where the said Achimogu claimed to be a former staff of Atiku was intended not only to blackmail the former vice president but also to distract Nigerians from the real issues ahead of next month’s presidential election.
Aniagwu, who is the Commissioner for Information in Delta State, said that Achimogu was never a staff of Atiku, adding that the corruption allegations he made against the PDP candidate in the video, were false.
“In their unbridled quest to expand Tinubu’s grip on the state, they have cooked up stories. They have gone to wake a blackmailer and call him a whistle-blower,” he stated.
“The Mike Achimugu was not a staff of Atiku, he worked in one of the support groups and closely with the daughter, he was not employed by Atiku.
“And this is because they have seen that Atiku has captured the hearts of many Nigerians based on the conviction by a good number of Nigerians that Atiku has got what it takes to rescue the country and put it on the path of progress and development.
“And so for the likes of Festus Keyamo and Femi Fani Kayode to be shouting and screaming that they want to get a petition, is to say the least, very uncharitable. Achimogu is a blackmailer who cannot be taken seriously,” he said.
According to him, the PDP understands clearly what the issues are, and that the party is determined to address the issues through the Atiku-Okowa presidency.
“As a political party and as a campaign council, we do know what the issues are, which is that most Nigerians have lost their jobs; more than 133 million Nigerians are now suffering from multi-dimensional poverty; our infrastructure is not in the best of shape; our unity is terribly challenged.
“And there is a need for our children to have the best of education to curb brain drain; we need to grow the economy and progress the country from this very consumptive atmosphere to a much more productive environment. Those are the issues,” he added.
Aniagwu said an Atiku presidency will unite the country and end divisive tendencies, build enduring infrastructure, address insecurity and amend the constitution to devolve more power to the component units.
He stated that the aim of the APC and its candidate, Tinubu, was to plunge Nigeria into internal slavery, and urged the electorate to be weary of the ruling party.
“You know what slavery did to us. So we cannot bring back internal slave masters to come and govern us to determine how the means of production will be distributed.
‘We urged Nigerians not to be distracted from what the issues are, it is just about 38 days to the general elections, and they just want to bring up issues that will distract us from where we are and what we are doing.
“And any attempt to get distracted, that will amount to yielding ourselves to the slave intents of those who have visited some elements of slavery on Lagos by collecting a whole lot of resources with a claim that they astronomically raise the IGR without Lagosians benefiting the essence of the very high rise in IGR,” he claimed.
The PDP spokesman alleged that Tinubu and his family were in charge of controlling the strategic revenue sources of Lagos State, adding the APC standard bearer has also reserved the sole right to determine who governs the state against the wishes of the majority of Lagosians.