October 10, (THEWILL) – The Tinubu-Shettima Campaign Council of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has described former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara and so-called APC Northern Christian leaders, as impostors.
Reacting to reports that Dogara, along with other Christian leaders in the north, had concluded arrangements to unveil a consensus presidential candidate in opposition to the Muslim-Muslim ticket of the APC, the Campaign Council, claimed that Dogara, particularly, has apparently lost his mind since failing to actualise his self-imposed ambition to be on the presidential ticket of the ruling party.
In a statement issued on Monday and signed by its Director, Media & Publicity, Bayo Onanuga, the Campaign Council insisted that it was not surprised at the resolutions of the Dogara-led Christian leaders, but observed with shock that the media failed to read through their smokescreen.
The statement read: “On account of not realising his presidential ambition, he has certainly become a reprobate and demagogue, delivering hate speeches and whipping up emotions, with the aim of setting our country ablaze.
“The Tinubu-Shettima PCC is, therefore, not surprised by media reports about a meeting of some so-called Northern Christian leaders, who claimed to be members of our APC that was championed by Dogara and his ilks.
“The claim was totally fraudulent.
“Dogara, the peripatetic and politically unstable politician, who organised the meeting, left our party officially and unceremoniously weeks ago. And those who attended the meeting were representing themselves, their selfish agenda, not Northern Christians.
“Before then, the former speaker had spearheaded a campaign of vitriol and hate against our party, using religion as camouflage, after he lost the vice-presidential candidacy to a better qualified Senator Kashim Shettima.
“A careful reading of the people who attended the unholy meeting he called also showed that they were all PDP members, masquerading as APC members. Among the politicians at the unholy consultative meeting were Mukhar Shagari, Boni Haruna, Abdulfattah Ahmed; Damishi Sango; Senator Idris Ahmed Umar; and two former deputy governors of Kogi State, Yomi Awoniyi and Simon Achuba. They are all PDP members working for the presidential ambition of Atiku Abubakar.
“We were not surprised by the resolutions adopted. Our surprise was that the media failed to read through their smokescreen. The APC PCC wondered how the assembly of strange bedfellows hoped to foster unity and cohesion in our country, when their candidate represents the antithesis of the goal, having emerged as the greatest divider of our polity, between the north and south.
“All Nigerians are aware that Atiku’s emergence as the PDP presidential candidate grossly violated a power rotation code between the north and the south. His insistence on snatching and retaining what rightly belongs to another political region has triggered a crisis within his party, making him run from Port Harcourt to London to mend fences.
“We want to assure Dogara and his co-travellers fanning hate campaigns against our Presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu and his running mate, that they will fail spectacularly at the polls.
“From the engagements our leaders have had with men of all faiths, bigotry will not win next February election. What will prevail are the track records of our candidates and the solution-driven and all-inclusive progressive programmes the candidates offer Nigerians.
