Fuel scarcity, naira redesign ploy to sabotage elections –Tinubu

From Laide Raheem, Abeokuta, Adanna Nnamani and Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja

Presidential candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, yesterday, claimed that the ongoing scarcity of premium motor spirit (PMS), also known as petrol, and challenges experienced in accessing new naira notes were aimed at creating crisis and sabotaging the February 25 poll.

He also alleged that there were plots against him with clandestine moves made to scuttle the 2023 election. He however,declared  that nothing would stop his victory.

Tinubu spoke at the presidential campaign rally of the APC in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital. He said   the current fuel scarcity and its attendant untoward hardship on citizens, was artificially created.

He, however, urged the electorate  not to be discouraged, but to persevere, pick up their Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) and vote for him ,promising to end the fuel supply crisis in the country.

He said: “Even if they say there is no fuel, we will trek to vote. They have a lot of mischief; they have been scheming to create  fuel crisis, but forget about it. Relax, I, Asiwaju have told you that the issue of fuel supply will be permanently addressed. Whoever wants to eat the honey embedded in a mountain won’t worry about the axe. Is that not so? And if you want to eat palm kernel, you would bring stone and use it to break it, then the kernel will come out.

“…Let them increase the price of fuel, only they know where they have hoarded the fuel. They hoarded money, they hoarded naira; we will go and vote and we will win. Even if they changed the ink on naira notes, whatever their plans, it will come to nought. We are going to win. Those in the PDP will lose.

“I am a homeboy, I have come here, you will not be put to shame, we will take over the government from them, the traitors who wanted to contest with us, they had no experience. This election is a revolution. They are plotting, but they will fail. They said fuel price will increase and reach N200 per litre. Go and relax. They don’t want this election to hold, they want to scuttle it. Do you agree? 

“On this one, I’m assuring you one thing: there will be a student loan. Nobody will drop out of the university because of school fees. I guarantee you that…

“They think they can cause crisis by sabotaging fuel supply? They are sabotaging fuel supply. Whether there is fuel or not, whether there are motorcycles or not, whether there are tricycles or not, we will go and vote and we shall win. This is a superior revolution and when I tell you, you know what I mean. You know me, we are going there to win,” he said.

Ogun State governor, Dapo Abiodun, declared that Tinubu remained the best prepared among the presidential candidates, calling on the people to vote massively for him and all APC candidates in the February 25 and March 11  elections.

•Blackmailing Buhari won’t  save you from defeat –Atiku replies

 Atiku/Okowa Campaign Organization has accused All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu of blackmailing President Muhammadu Buhari over the new N1,000, N500 and N200 naira and fuel scarcity across the country.

The campaign, in a statement by its spokesperson, Kola Ologbondiyan, said Tinubu was trying to hoodwink Nigerians  by  attempting to exonerate himself from the alleged failures of the APC-led Federal Government.

“Our campaign finds it pathetic that Asiwaju Tinubu is seeking a face-saving measure ahead of his shattering electoral defeat by shedding crocodile tears and claiming that the redesigning of the naira notes and the fuel crisis under the APC administration were plots to scuttle the 2023 general elections

“It is unfortunate that Asiwaju Tinubu is trying to hoodwink Nigerians by seeking to exonerate himself and blame others in the Buhari led-APC administration from the biting fuel scarcity in the country, when in reality he (Asiwaju Tinubu) is known to be behind the insensitive and anti-people policies that have brought so much calamity to our country including the current persistent fuel scarcity

“Of course, only politicians who have always won elections by relying on bullion vans have become troubled over the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) monetary policy to redesign the naira. More reprehensible is the fact that few months to the end of the Buhari government, Asiwaju Tinubu is now struggling to distance himself from an administration which he told the world that he brought into office just because he wants to beguile Nigerians and take their votes.

“How can Asiwaju Tinubu accuse an administration he had been a part of since 2015 of trying to sabotage the 2023 elections except he is making revelations to Nigerians about their plans? It is imperative to state that Nigerians,  who are prepared to trek distances to cast their votes are the patriots who have been at the butt of pains which the government Asiwaju Tinubu installed has foisted on them.

“Asiwaju Tinubu ought to know that Nigerians can see through his antics and beguilements and that his diversionary theatrics on fuel and new naira notes cannot sway Nigerians at this moment.”

•You got it wrong  –Labour party

However, Labour Party (LP), has advised All Progressives Congress’s (APC), presidential candidate,  to desist from going to Abeokuta, Ogun State, stating that he gets it wrong whenever he visits the state. 

Reacting to Tinubu’s speech on the naira and fuel scarcity,  Diran Onifade,  spokesperson for Peter Obi, LP presidential candidate said: “If I was to be Tinubu’s adviser I would advise him to stop going to Abeokuta. In the same Abeokuta where he made his own statements about how President Buhari was crying on TV and all that,  and then he made his emilokon statement. Now he is saying that Naira redesign and fuel scarcity is being programmed to fail the elections or something like that and how they are going to take over power from them. Who are the “they” or “them in this respect? I could only have been the CBN governor and the Minister of Petroleum. Now, who in this respect is the Petroleum minister? It is President Muhammadu Buhari. The same man he has been campaigning that he, Tinubu, wants to continue the good works of. I don’t get it. I think his advisers should advise him to stop going to Abeokuta because he gets it wrong every time he goes there.”