The People’s Democratic Party Coalition (PDPCo), a non-profit making group withing the opposition PDP, has declared that the in the annals of the former Vice President Alhaji Atiku Abubakar’s political career, he had never relied on undue financial aid from government officials to finance his elections.
The group denied the allegation in some quarters that Atiku, the PDP presidential candidate in the 2023 elections, received financial support from Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State to run his campaign.
They described the allegation as a campaign of calumny targeted at debasing the image of the former Vice President and challenged those behind the claim to make public their findings.
The National Coordinator of PDPCo, Dr. Emeka Kalu, stated these on Friday in a statement made available to journalists.
Kalu also challenged the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), which was linked with the allegation, to present its findings to the public on the matter.
Kalu insisted that Atiku had no personal dealings with the incumbent governor of Lagos State as claimed by some elements in the All Progressives Congress (APC).
He wondered how Sanwo-Olu would have worked against his political godfather in an election in which President Bola Tinubu deployed his arsenals to the campaign.
He said: “In strongest terms, I boldly condemn the baseless, trivial and unfounded rumours being peddled against the personality of the 2023 PDP Presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, accusing him of receiving financial assistance from Gov. Babajide Sanwo Olu of Lagos State to fund his presidential election.
“It is highly debasing for anyone in his right thinking to imagine that Atiku approached the Lagos State governor for financial support and as well, received the same during an election Tinubu was desperately bent on deploying all forms of deceptive tendencies to grab power at all costs.
“It is an extreme act of Machiavelli’s schemes of autocracy for APC in its faceless campaign of calumny to fabricate false narratives against a respected national figure in the standing of Atiku Abubakar who has no personal dealings with the governor of Lagos State as sheepishly claimed by the falsehood peddlers.”
He expressed that the allegation was being peddled against Atiku to politically undermine his leadership visions that the masses willingly gave him in the 2023 presidential election.
The PDPCo National Coordinator maintained that if Atiku had not been robbed of his victory at the polls, he would have turned around the economy of the country and improve the image of Nigeria in the comity of nations.
Kalu insisted that no amount of calumny peddled against Atiku was capable of frustrating his ambitions to stoutly lead a campaign against bad governance the nation had faced in recent years since the APC took over power at the centre.
He regretted that under the watch of the present government, the nation’s economy had collapsed with no hope of revival except an entirely new regime was achieved.
“Ordinarily, the mischief makers were expected to have known that Atiku is such a man that hardly throws in the towel, especially in a fight he believes is capable of achieving a politically sanitised society for the Nigeria’s people.
“As a selfless man who firmly believes in a government of a national unity, I stand to categorically demand that the APC government disembarks from her high horse and admit to Nigerians for failing to lead and promote good governance than shifting blames to Atiku Abubakar whose reputation continuously stands tall in the nation ‘s leadership scales of excellence and integrity,” he added.
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