The Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) presidential nominee, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has been challenged by the All Progressives Congress (APC) to be open about his health and to address allegations of corruption.

In a statement he released on Wednesday in Abuja, Mr. Bayo Onanuga, Director, Media and Publicity, APC Presidential Campaign Council (PCC), issued the challenge.

It’s time for PDP presidential contender Atiku Abubakar, 76, to address two matters that are clouding his campaign.

“With his health condition and his outrageous admission that as vice president in 1999, he conspired with his old boss, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, to steal from the Nigerian treasury by utilising Special Purpose Vehicles,”

Atiku “ought to have stood down from the presidential contest that he is likely to lose again if he has any semblance of dignity,” said Onanuga.

He said that the release of his audio clip, in which he “gave a vivid description of the way he was known to be corrupt,” was a big reason for this.

Onanuga said that Atiku’s camp hadn’t done much to respond to the shocking news yet, other than try in vain to blame the whistleblower, Michael Achimugu, who used to be Atiku’s media strategist.

The Director of Media and Publicity for the APC PCC said that Nigerians were angry that Atiku and the PDP did nothing more than ignore the news.

He pleaded with Nigerians to reject Atiku at the polls in February in order to hold him accountable for the terrible disclosure.

Atiku also won’t talk about his health, even though his staffers make up lies every day in an attempt to take attention away from his biggest opponent.

“Although Atiku is the candidate about whom Nigerians should be extremely concerned, the years-old lies and other distracting strategies are no longer tenable.”

“Atiku’s superstructure of deceit is ready to collapse on him,” Onanuga said. “The PDP presidential candidate is undoubtedly not okay, despite the papering efforts.

He has been out of the country since December 21, 2022. He said that people were suspicious when Atiku didn’t come back to Nigeria after the holidays to keep running for president.

During the election campaign, it was said that Atiku had been flown from his usual home in Dubai to London for medical care.

“The claim has not been vehemently refuted.” According to reliable sources, Atiku did fall ill.

Even though his handlers made it appear as though Whitehall officials had invited him, he was in the UK for medical treatment, according to Onanuga.

He pointed out that despite attempts by Atiku’s handlers to portray him as physically and mentally competent to withstand the rigours of the presidential campaign, photos from rallies contradicted that claim.

He said that in campaign photos, Atiku was sometimes seen needing help to get down stairs at stadiums and sometimes looked like he had a disability and walked with his feet dragging.

Onanuga continued by saying that Atiku’s divorced wife Jennifer Douglas’s admission in 2022 that he had been hospitalised in a German hospital for an operation while they were going through a contentious divorce was the only reliable information about his health situation.

Jennifer cited Atiku’s self-admission in a widely circulated letter written in February 2022 that he was in Germany for medical treatment, which explained why he was unable to pick up his possessions from a Dubai home that Jennifer had occupied.

Onanuga insisted, “A man who wants to run Nigeria and wants Nigerians to have some faith in him must promptly and honestly confront these twin issues: his health and his notorious corruption.”

NAN