APC: Tinubu didn’t blame Buhari for petrol, naira notes scarcity — he only warned him about saboteurs

The All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential campaign council says Bola Tinubu, its presidential candidate, did not blame President Muhammadu Buhari for the scarcity of petrol and new naira notes.

Speaking at a rally in Ogun state on Wednesday, Tinubu said the scarcity of petrol and the naira redesign would not affect his chances of securing victory.

“They don’t want the election to hold,” the former governor of Lagos had said.

“They want to disrupt it. Will you allow that? Will you vote?”

Phrank Shaibu, an aide to Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), said Tinubu was using the problems as an excuse for his imminent defeat.

In a statement on Thursday, Bayo Onanuga, the council’s director of media, said Tinubu was only drawing Buhari’s attention to saboteurs “possibly working in cahoots with the PDP”.

“For a presidential candidate who cares about the suffering of our people, he has a duty to warn the government that its efforts to make life better for Nigerians are being sabotaged on several fronts,” Onanuga said.

“How does an advisory genuinely made by Asiwaju Tinubu to protect and create goodwill for the government of his party become an attack? It can only be so in the jaundiced view of the PDP.

“It is in this light we found amusing the directionless Atiku campaign’s bagful of mischief in their hurriedly put-together press statement meant to gain shameful mileage from the suffering of Nigerians.

“PDP and Atiku should remember not to get high on their own smoke. No political blackmail and an attempt to create a conflict between Tinubu and his long-term ally, President Muhammadu Buhari can succeed.

“The Atiku rudderless campaign, always seeking cheap shots and easy ways has again woefully attempted to make a mountain out of a molehill from the comments made by Asiwaju Tinubu in Abeokuta.

“As a patriotic and compassionate leader, Asiwaju Tinubu will not stomach seeing ordinary Nigerians being made to face excessive difficulties over mundane issues due to activities of petrol and currency hoarders.”