Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who is running for president with the All Progressives Congress (APC), and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, who is running for president with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), have been told by the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP) to drop out of the February 2023 election right away because of alleged vices.
According to a statement released by the CNPP and signed by its Secretary General, Chief Willy Ezugwu, recent accusations and denials against both presidential candidates have shown how important it is to stop dishonest politicians and people with ties to illegal businesses from becoming the party’s nominees in elections at all levels.
“While we agree with the APC presidential campaign council that security agencies should immediately arrest Atiku for prosecution over his Special Purpose Vehicles (SPV) systems, as opposed to open corruption, we also call on Tinubu to submit himself to security screening over alleged illicit business ventures and corruption allegations involving the use of SPV, such as the Alpha Beta.”
“For the CNPP, both the APC and PDP are right in their calls and countercalls for their respective presidential candidates to step aside for thorough investigation, as the allegations made by a whistleblower, Mr. Michael Achimugu, against Atiku and the revelations made by award-winning journalist and researcher, David Hundeyin, bordering on international crime, specifically trafficking in narcotics and taking proceeds of narcotics, are all credible.”
“These are severe claims that have an adverse effect on transnational crime, national security, and corruption. One of the main jobs of security agencies everywhere in the world, including Nigeria, is to stop crime.
“There is reasonable suspicion that Atiku engaged in syndicated corruption of hi-tech magnitudes as Vice President of Nigeria under the Olusegun Obasanjo administration,” the report continued. “Companies were alleged to have been formed on purpose solely to serve as vehicles for the unrestricted siphoning of Nigeria’s commonwealth.”
Little wonder that former President Obasanjo’s book, “My Watch,” detailed some of the former Vice President’s “corrupt involvement” with a company called iGATE and William Jefferson, a former U.S. lawmaker who was later imprisoned for 13 years over corruption, in chapter 36, which was devoted to discussing alleged corruption and money laundering cases linked to Atiku.
“Chief Obasanjo connected Atiku to the theft of $20 million that the administration was meant to use for the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) and an additional $125 million to fund PTDF in 2003.
Atiku’s spokesperson, Dino Melaye, insisted that as a result of the revelation, Tinubu is the person expected to be investigated and prosecuted because “he is the one that has been indicted already in a certified court indictment.” On the other hand, Hundeyin exposed alleged drug connections to Bola Tinubu. In reaction to Festus Keyamo’s petition to security agencies, Dino Melaye said, “He is the man who has faced the Code of Conduct before.”
Atiku and Tinubu were consequently urged by the CNPP to “immediately resign from the 2023 presidential contest and surrender themselves to security and anti-corruption agencies for proper examination of the charges against them.”
“This is the right thing to do at this time,” it said, “as Nigerians cannot afford to put up with another potential eight years of a government run by people whose past is weighed down by unsolved claims.”
The Human Rights Writers Association (HURIWA) has criticized both candidates for launching “infantile campaigns of calumny against one another” in the meanwhile.
Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, the national coordinator, stated in a statement: “The situation between the APC and PDP is absolutely absurd.” HURIWA strongly opposes the use of frivolous and inflammatory diverting tactics in political campaigns. We demand that candidates for elective offices debate with Nigerians in town halls, village squares, on TV, and on the radio about the problems with the economy, how to defeat terrorists, how to create opportunities for wealth, how to end child poverty and gender-based violence, and how to safeguard our environment from pollution and degradation.
