The Atiku Presidential Campaign Organisation on Monday said the Sunday’s search of the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, and his private jet at Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, was a premeditated act of intimidation.
In a statement made available to journalists, the organisation recalled that the All Progressives Congress had earlier released a statement accusing Atiku of having strategy meetings for the purpose of moving “illicit cash” into Nigeria.
It claimed that the ruling party asked security services to investigate Atiku and his plane and search aircraft belonging to members of the PDP.
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The organisation said the APC’s statement showed an obvious premeditated intention by the party and the Federal Government to deliberately embarrass the former vice-president by invading his plane with security personnel and possibly to set him up for the crimes they had already officially accused him of in their statement.
The statement said, “The official denial by the All Progressives Congress and the Presidency of having any hand in the ordeal of the former vice-president is put to lie when you examine their statement of last week which was clearly what was implemented against the former vice-president.
“It also shows that both parties have no credibility and will do or say anything to further their interests.
“The statement by the Aviation Ministry that the search of Atiku Abubakar’s plane is ‘routine’ is an afterthought that does not hold water for the simple reason that the PDP presidential candidate has been flying in and out of Nigeria without ever receiving such a treatment until the APC released their statement.
“This event raises grave concerns about using government services for purely political purposes and what this portends for the conduct of free and fair elections in February 2019, and shows as hollow President Buhari’s promise to superintendent over credible polls.
“The Atiku Presidential Campaign Organisation wishes to remind Nigerians and the international community that by Nigeria’s constitution, only the President can order the deployment of military and paramilitary personnel as Commander-in-Chief.
“That, combined with the statement released last week is proof beyond a reasonable doubt that what happened to Atiku Abubakar was not a routine exercise, but a deliberate attempt to intimidate him by those who have seen the political handwriting on the wall.”
Also, a coalition of Atiku Abubakar support groups on Monday raised the alarm over an alleged plot by the APC to destabilise them.
Addressing journalists, the National Leader of the coalition and the National Coordinator of Project Atiku 2019, Rev. Emmanuel Olorunmagba, warned that those planning the downfall of pro Atiku groups would fail.
He said, “Both the master-mind and the sponsors of the propaganda against APCO have failed woefully in their attempt to blackmail Atiku and APCO.
Meanwhile, the Ekiti State Coordinator of the Nigeria Intervention Movement Mr Moses Jolayemi, has described the Sunday search of Atiku’s aircraft as “a clear indication that President Muhammadu Buhari is desperate, jittery and grossly ill-advised by his handlers.”
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In a statement on Monday, Jolayemi described the explanation by the Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, that the search was routine, as an attempt to hoodwink Nigerians.
He said the minister’s explanation was “shallow, hollow and totally unintelligible by every standard and no discerning mind in this country will gulp such porous excuse because even a primary school child is bound to question the timing for that strange search.”