Atiku, APC clash over 2027
Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) yesterday clashed over alleged plots by the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led government to subvert democracy and compromise the will of the people in the 2027 polls. Atiku, a former presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in a statement yesterday alleged that there […]
Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) yesterday clashed over alleged plots by the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led government to subvert democracy and compromise the will of the people in the 2027 polls.
Atiku, a former presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in a statement yesterday alleged that there is a broader pattern of democratic subversion under President Tinubu.
Atiku, who is yet to officially declare to run against President Tinubu in 2027, is however known for consistently criticising the policies and programmes of the Tinubu administration. His political allies have hinted that he would contest again in 2027.
Recently, he dumped the PDP for the African Democratic Congress (ADC), following the adoption of the party by the opposition coalition which he spearheaded to challenge Tinubu and the APC in 2027.
Atiku said, “The suspension of Governor Simi Fubara and lawmakers of the Rivers State House of Assembly, the unlawful suspension of Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan, and the weaponisation of state institutions to harass and intimidate opposition voices are not isolated acts.
“They are deliberate markers of the Tinubu administration’s strategy as 2027 approaches: to subvert our hard-earned democracy and compromise the will of the people at any cost.”
Atiku, however, vowed that the opposition would continue to resist such moves through legal and democratic means.
“The opposition will do everything within the bounds of the law to protect our democracy, defend the sovereignty of the people’s mandate, and rescue our nation from the grip of authoritarianism,” he said.
Speaking on Natasha’s resumption at the Senate, Atiku said, “It’s reassuring that the voice of reason has prevailed at last with the unsealing of the office of Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan.
Though the precious time denied the people of Kogi Central in the Senate can never be reclaimed, this struggle has not been in vain. It has proven, once again, that when we stand together, we can triumph over tyranny.”
But reacting, the APC said several governors were “illegally” impeached when Atiku was vice president, stressing that he lacks the moral right to make such claims and allegations against President Tinubu.
The APC National Director of Publicity, Bala Ibrahim, told Daily Trust in a telephone interview that “the former vice president is only telling Nigerians that his memory is getting rusty and that dementia is knocking at his door.”
He said, “Whatever Atiku Abubakar, a statesman and former vice president, is accusing Tinubu of doing today, he supervised the doing of it yesterday.
“It was when Atiku was the vice president of Nigeria that Nigerians witnessed the first declaration of state of emergency in the country. It was when Atiku was the vice president that Nigerians witnessed the impeachment of a state governor under a Kangaroo arrangement.
“Legislators were assembled into a vehicle and taken to an unknown destination where they were compelled to sign the impeachment notice and the governor was removed,” he said.
Ibrahim said, “We had that case in Ekiti, we had a state of emergency in Plateau. We had the removal of a governor in Bayelsa. All over the country, democracy was turned outside down. Atiku was the vice president of Nigeria.
“No one accused him and his principal of trying to stifle democracy, and enforce a dictatorship. So for Atiku to be accusing Tinubu of dictatorship at this time, I think he is only telling Nigerians that his memory is getting rusty and that dementia is knocking at his door. But Nigerians are not that forgetful.”