The All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council (APC-PCC), has debunked what it described as the false and misleading posts on various social media handles of supporters of Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party that Bola Tinubu the ruling party’s presidential standard bearer is withdrawing from the race on health grounds.
Festus Keyamo, the Minister of State for Labour and Employment and APC-PCC spokesperson, in a statement, said the post is nothing but a figment of their warped imaginations. According to him, Tinubu is strong, healthy and fit enough for the coming campaigns and the opposition will hear loud and clear from him soon.
Keyamo also chided Obi for circulating a video in which the Labour Party presidential candidate accused an amorphous and non-existent “Tinubu’s group” of spreading a WhatsApp message calling on the Yoruba not to vote for the former Anambra State governor.
He said, “For the avoidance of doubt, this is a transcript of the so-called message as relayed by Mr. Peter Obi: ‘Yoruba, shine your eyes o! If you vote for Peter Obi, it is automatically voting for seaports in South-South and South East. The Igbos will stop coming to Lagos State to invest; rather, they will go to Delta and Rivers States, they may even stop building houses in Lagos. It will affect a lot of Yorubas. Yoruba, ro nu o.”
“Firstly, we vehemently deny the existence of any such “Tinubu group” that made and circulated such a message. All groups supporting the APC presidential candidate and his running-mate have clear designations with well-known promoters. In addition, it is only messages released by the APC Presidential Campaign Council that are officially authorised and for which we take responsibility”, the statement read in part.
The APC-PCC spokesperson noted that as the take-off date for campaigns draws closer, Obi has suddenly realised that Nigerians are beginning to burst his bubbles as his messages are bereft of ideas, depth and clear-cut solutions to the country’s challenges.
Keyamo asked Obi to quit the race if he has nothing more to tell Nigerians, saying: “his messages are only full of false data and highfalutin jargons in what is clearly a disingenuous ruse to distract scrutiny of his empty records as a Governor of Anambra State and nothing else, hence his easy recourse to playing ethnic card and fanning the ember of hate.
“We call on all well-meaning Nigerians, irrespective of ethnic origins or political divides, to rise up and condemn these tactless tactics and cheap manoeuver by a desperate non-starter of a presidential candidate who has decided to resort to crude revisionism, ethnic jingoism and crass insensitivity with a view to whipping up the undeserved sentiment to fuel his faltering ambition that is nothing but a flash in a pan”, the statement further stated.
