A member of the defunct All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council for Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Jesutega Onokpasa, has said that a former governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, and his Kaduna State counterpart, Nasir el-Rufai, would have calmed the violent demonstrations in the Northern part of the country if they were not being persecuted and inundated with unsubstantiated charges.
He said the two former governors, in their characteristic manner, would have taken up the task of speaking up for President Bola Tinubu, calmed frayed nerves and ensure that peace reigns in the region in the face of the ongoing nationwide #EndBadGovernance protests, which have turned violent in the North.
Onokpasa made this known in a video message while lambasting appointees of President Tinubu who are from the North for failing to take any action in defending Tinubu-led government and ensuring sanity among participants of the nationwide protests.
According to the lawyer, many appointees of President Tinubu, especially those from the North, allegedly do not really love him and neither do they support his government, adding that all they do was to paint Yahaya Bello and el-Rufai black by cooking up unfounded rumour that the former governors and the Minister of Defence, Bello Matawalle, were sponsoring the nationwide protests and that they were behind the display of Russian flags by some northern protesters.
But, dismissing the allegations by an ‘Obi-dient’ identified as Jackson Ude, that the former governors, conniving with the Minister of State for Defence, Bello Matawalle, and the Chief Personal Security Officer to President Tinubu, were behind calls for military coup by the protesters, Onokpasa expressed disappointment that some idle appointees of Tinubu and APC loyalists had been parroting the rumour even when they were supposed to be synergising on how to restore normalcy in the country in the wake of the nationwide protests.
The APC chieftain described Bello and El-Rufai as true BATists who contributed immensely to the emergence of President Tinubu, maintaining that if the duo were not encumbered with politically motivated issues, they would have risen to the violent demonstration in the North, restore normalcy and assure the protesters of the good intentions of President Tinubu.
Calling on APC supporters and appointees of the Federal Government to maintain caution over unfounded speculations and hearsays that might further divide the ruling party, Onokpasa stressed that Bello, El-Rufai, Matawalle and others mentioned in the alleged plot against Tinubu were known strong supporters of Tinubu who assiduously supported him to electoral victory and still work for his success.
“Those of you in our party listening to this ‘dem say, dem say crap’ saying our brothers (Yahaya Bello and Nasir El-Rufai) are planning against Asiwaju. The people that Jackson Udeh mentioned – Yahaya Bello, Nasir el-Rufai, Bello Matawalle – these are the people that were very very close to former President Muhammadu Buhari. They were the three people that sued him (Buhari) over naira scarcity and redesign that Emefiele did to make us lose election. They are the ones who sued (Buhari) in support of President Tinubu. They were critical to us winning election.
“Then, an Obedient mentions them, without no evidence, he says they are responsible (for nationwide protest), Yahaya Bello of all people, Nasir el-Rufai. They are trying to divide us and some of us BATists, some of us APC supporters, some of us in Asiwaju government are so stupid, so idiotic as to allow them to divide us. We are falling apart like this. How many of us are there? How many of us won this election? We won election not because we are spectacular, we won election because God wanted Asiwaju to be President. We won by the lowest margin since 1999. I am a Catholic and it is so clear to me that God made Asiwaju President despite all the odds and these people (Bello, El-Rufai, Matawalle) they are mentioning were crucial in us winning that election,” he said.
Onokpasa warned against pull-him-down syndrome in APC, lamenting that the party was gradually falling apart. He called on all genuine BATists and supporters of APC to desist from persecuting and painting Yahaya Bello and Nasir el-Rufai bad, saying no amount of their evil ploys against the duo would take away their huge commitments in the presidency of Tinubu.
“So, let us continue this nonsense of tearing ourselves apart, let us continue this nonsense of falling apart miserably, while the other side is gathering together and sponsoring mayhem, insurrection against us, then claiming that it is our brothers, whom idiots in this government through ‘dem say, dem say’ nonsense emasculated and drove from our midst.
“Our dear brothers, Yahaya Bello, Nasir el-Rufai… Nobody is perfect, I have fundamental differences with them, but they are our brothers, they stood with us when it mattered most. Who is perfect? Am I? No one is, not even Asiwaju that is perfect. Only our Lord Jesus Christ is perfect, only God is perfect. They are our brothers, so, let us continue tearing ourselves apart when we won presidency with less than 40 per cent of the votes.
“Can you imagine, Russia? We are bigger than Russia. We have more population than Russia, carrying Russian flags on our own soil, calling for military coup? That Yahaya and Nasir are in Niger? Doing what? Where is the proof? There is something really wrong with us in this party. We are just falling apart.
“Now, so far, what I would say in the northern dimension of this so called nationwide protest, which is just an excuse for mayhem, if we had our members (Bello and El-Rufai) still with us, fully with us, free to do what every Nigerian citizen should do, if we had Yahaya Bello, if we had Nasir el-Rufai, these are people like me, they are not afraid of anything, they will speak their minds, they would have calmed down the north, they would have spoken up for Asiwaju,” Onokpasa maintained.
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