Atiku’s Special Assistant on media, Phrank Shaibu, had called for a probe into an alleged link between president Buhari and Etisalat Nigeria.
Ndubuisi Orji, with agency report
The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and President Muhammadu Buhari’s 2019 campaign spokesman, Festus Keyamo (SAN) are locked in a verbal war over ownership of telecommunications company, Etisalat and Keystone Bank.
Keyamo denies receiving money from NNPC for campaign
While the PDP, through its presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, had alleged on Wednesday that Buhari’s family members bought substantial shares in both firms, Keyamo, turned the tables, yesterday night, and also, claimed that Atiku’s relatives actually own the two companies.
Atiku’s Special Assistant on media, Phrank Shaibu, had called for a probe into an alleged link between president Buhari and Etisalat Nigeria.
Again, yesterday, PDP’s campaign organisation’s Director of Media and Publicity, Kola Ologbondiyan, threw the challenge at Buhari when he addressed a press conference in Abuja.
He said it is pertinent for Buhari to explain to Nigerians how his family members came about the N1.032 trillion which they allegedly used in acquiring shares in the two business enterprises
and that Nigerians are not interested in rhetorics or alleged attempts by the Presidency to divert attention from the issues.
Ologbondiyan said: “The PDP presidential campaign challenges president Buhari to explain how his family members came about the sum of N1.032 trillion for this scandalous acquisition.
“Nigerians demand that president Buhari, who hitherto prides himself as Mr. Integrity, squarely addresses these grave issues in person.
“It is a norm that he who comes to equity must come with clean hands. President Buhari and his family members have entangled themselves in corruption.
“Mr. President’s hands can no longer be said to be clean, until he proves otherwise.”
The PDP spokesman added that the party is privy to how relatives of president Buhari have allegedly been hounding government agencies, major business concerns and intending foreign investors over kickbacks.
“Our party has full details of how persons related to president Buhari, by consanguinity and affinity, have paved the way to loot trillions of naira from government agencies, for corrupt acquisition of shares in major companies, purchase expensive property within and outside Nigeria, as well as to finance their very luxury lifestyles, under Mr. President’s cover.”
Keyamo fired back
“With the latest refrain of the PDP, linking some phantom shares in Etisalat and Keystone bank to the ‘family’ of the president, we have it on good authority that the presidential candidate of the PDP and his party are set to release a series of wild, unsubstantiated allegations against the president and vice president; including their friends and family members, in the next few weeks. With the latest revelation that the said shares are rather linked to relatives of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, it has became a case of the thief calling the farm owner the thief, as the Yoruba would say in a popular proverb. “These impending wild allegations would naturally border on corrupt practices without any evidential basis. The purpose is to attempt to dent the greatest forte of the president and vice president; going into 2019 elections, which is their personal integrity…
“They have decided to run a campaign of “we-are-all-corrupt,” rather than defend their sordid records of merciless looting of the public purse, which has brought us to where we are today.
“The aim is to push Nigerians to equate an Atiku with Buhari, on matters of corruption.
“They want to deceive Nigerians to think that the 2019 elections is really a choice between two “corrupt” persons. By repeating the lies a million times, they aim to get Nigerians to begin to give some serious thought to the lies.
“This is how the “Jubrin from Sudan” story started, before even some well-exposed and educated Nigerians were nearly converted on that issue.
“Nigerians should, therefore brace up for six weeks of despicable lies from the pit of hell against the president and vice president, to try to suggest to Nigerians that the president and his deputy are part of the league of looters to which they belong but Nigerians should understand that the choices before them have never been this clear: It is between a fugitive from the law in America and a president who has never been accused of stealing anything in his entire life and is respected both locally and internationally…”