Atiku’s aide warns Tinubu’s loyalists against disrupting tribunal proceedings

Phrank Shaibu, an aide to the former presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, has warned supporters of President Bola Tinubu from disrupting proceedings at the presidential election petition tribunal.

In a statement on Sunday, Mr Shaibu said the warning became imperative following Mr Tinubu’s supporters’ protest at the European Union head office in Abuja.

“We seize this opportunity to send a warning to the Tinubu government and its minions against disrupting the proceedings of the election tribunal as they have shown a clear disdain for the truth by picketing the EU office,” said Mr Shaibu.

Mr Tinubu’s loyalists had protested after the release of the EU Observer Mission report, which revealed how the 2023 election failed the credibility test.

The EU report had scored the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) low on handling the election, a development that was faulted by Mr Tinubu’s surrogates, including his spokesman, Dele Alake; former activist Festus Keyamo; and Femi Fani-Kayode, who was also implicated in the report, rejected the findings.

Mr Atiku’s aide claimed that the president hired thugs to protest when he was dragged to court by the late lawyer, Gani Fawehinmi, and when Mr Tinubu appeared before the Code of Conduct Tribunal.

“We find it curious that the same security agencies which have been issuing statements barring protests were curiously available to provide cover for sponsored pro-government protesters to picket the EU office.

“We sound a note of warning to the security agencies to be on the alert as the tribunal proceedings wind down. The world is watching,” Mr Shaibu said.

Mr Shaibu claimed that in just 40 days of Mr Tinubu’s administration, poverty had deepened, and inflation had skyrocketed.

“This is how low Nigeria has sunk low since Tinubu took over the reins of government,” he said.

Mr Shaibu added that Mr Tinubu was running a government of hypocrisy by attributing the APC’s failures to select scapegoats while failing to point fingers at former President Muhammadu Buhari.

“Tinubu blamed Godwin Emefiele for the country’s economic woes and ordered his detention while he continued to shower praises on the man who not only appointed Emefiele but gave him a national award. This is the height of hypocrisy,” Mr Atiku’s aide said.

He said that rather than acknowledge that the election was flawed, Mr Tinubu continued to grandstand, thereby infuriating Nigerians.

“Tinubu is the opposite of a statesman,” said Mr Shaibu. “He claims the 2023 election is the best Nigeria has had since 1999 and continues to draw parallels between it and the epochal June 12, 1993 election by constantly mentioning the name of MKO Abiola and Hope 93.”