Former vice president and chieftain of All Progressives Congress (APC) Atiku Abubakar has advised those he described as “political mischief-makers” to allow him enjoy his peace and desist from sinister propaganda designed to draw a wedge between him and President Muhammadu Buhari, in order to cause needless distrust and distractions in the President’s government.
Reacting to insinuations by what he called “political mischief-makers and enemies of unity,” who alleged that he had been hosting political meetings at Burj Al-Arab, Dubai, the former vice president said contrary to the rumours being bandied around by political opponents, he was currently in Dubai with his family for physiotherapy on his injured knee.
In a press statement released by his media office in Abuja on Sunday, December 27, 2015, and signed by his media adviser, Paul Ibe, Atiku said he was embarrassed by the deliberate falsehoods being spread against him by political opponents “who are bent on causing distraction for President Buhari at a time all energies should be channelled into helping the President actualise his change agenda.”
Describing the rumourmongers as “ill-motivated busybodies that don’t wish the country well,” Atiku explained that his medical treatment was his private affairs, which should not be politicised by anybody to achieve sinister objectives.
He continued by saying that he was entitled to enjoy his private life, including the right to attend to his health, without being harassed and lied against by political opponents.
“Contrary to the insinuations by political opponents, the former Vice President says the success of the Buhari administration has been his preoccupation, and that any true APC member should have the same zeal.
“According to him, rumourmongers that seek to cause distrust and distraction in Buhari’s government do not mean well for the APC administration,” he said.
He added that with the challenges of providing good governance for the country and creating job opportunities for Nigerians, including reducing the impact of poverty, President Buhari needed all the goodwill and support in this endeavour.
“Whether at home or abroad, the Turaki is preoccupied with his unassailable support to President Buhari and his administration, especially in this critical time, as it works assiduously to turn the fortunes of our dear country around and make Nigeria work for the greater good of Nigerians,” he said.
While the former vice president and Bola Tinubu, a national leader of the APC are said to be in a supremacy battle over who chairs the long vacant party’s BOT, unconfirmed report also had it that the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the bid to reclaim the control of the federal power in 2019, was also strategising on luring the former vice president back to the party so as to make him it’s presidential candidate.
