Atiku’s campaign council, aide reply APC, say party lacks moral right to advise PDP on crisis management

The campaign team of the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, has fired back at the ruling APC campaign team over comments on the crisis rocking the main opposition party.

Bayo Onanuga, a spokesperson of the APC Presidential Campaign Organisation, earlier Friday, took a swipe at Atiku for his inability to resolve the issue causing division among key leaders of the PDP.

Referring to the crisis that has trailed the party following the emergence of Atiku as the PDP presidential candidate in May, Mr Onanuga mocked the PDP presidential candidate for not being able to unify his party yet he wants to become president to unify the country.

“Surely a man who cannot resolve a genuine dispute among his party members, who cannot forge an entente among them, cannot be expected to unify our country.

“Instead of being a unifier, Atiku is now a divider-in-chief. His campaign on this score is heading for a stillbirth, just as some of his programmes have been found to be nothing new, as they are already being implemented by the All Progressives Congress (APC) administration of President Muhammadu Buhari,” the APC campaign team threw yet another jab.

But in his reaction, a spokesperson of the Atiku campaign team, Daniel Bwala, in a statement on Friday evening, said the ruling party lacks the moral right to advise the PDP on how it should tackle its internal crisis.

“I read with utter shock a statement credited to Bayo Onanuga, Asiwaju campaign council surrogate, discussing the PDP affair like a meddlesome interloper. In the statement, surprisingly he was advocating for and prescribing medication for the very ailment killing APC,” Mr Bwala said.

He said the ruling APC has nothing to sell its presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, but to resort to blackmail because the current administration under President Muhammadu Buhari has failed in the security, political and economic sectors.

Mr Bwala also accused the APC campaign team of “making efforts to compromise INEC, blackmail members of the opposition, threatening the lives of spokespersons of the opposition parties and identifying judges to corrupt ahead of the polls.”

Also reacting in a separate statement, Atiku’s media aide, Paul Ibe, said the crisis rocking the “PDP is a conversation among leaders of the party and that, in itself, is a reflection of the PDP, as a living and engaging political party.”

He cautioned the APC against meddling in the affairs of the main opposition.

“We wish to remind the APC that its presidential candidate has to own the failures of the party in the last seven plus years. He should also know that Nigerians will not reward their failure with nothing less than a resounding loss in the election.

“Tinubu and the APC ma lu’le!

“It is important to let Tinubu and his paid agents know that what obtains in the PDP is not the mundane stoicism that the APC is known for,” Mr Ibe said.

He asked the ruling party to resolve the pending questions about its candidate, Tinubu, rather than spending precious time on what does not concern it.

“Well, since the APC Presidential Campaign Organization seems to have woken up from their state of hibernation, it is good to remind them that there are pending questions about the social and educational history of their candidate that Nigerians want answers to.

“We shall be kind enough to remind the APC that when, in the next few days, campaigns begin in earnest, Nigerians will require answers to some weighty character questions about their candidate and, rather than expend precious time on what is never their business, should use the remaining few days judiciously,” he said.