The alleged plan of the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Bola Tinubu to move the federal capital territory from Abuja back to Lagos has caused stir of reactions in the ruling party.
Newsonline reports that the stirs of reactions prompted the APC presidential council to issue a statement describing the alleged plan as rumour from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party.
In a statement on Tuesday, the spokesman Tinubu/Shettima campaign council, Bayo Onanuga said the rumour emanated from the Labour Party after it had exhausted all options to malign the former governor of Lagos State.
Onanuga said the Tinubu will not contemplate to go against the constitution of the country which moved the federal capital territory from Lagos to Abuja in 1991.
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APC presidential council lamented that Atiku and the Labour Party have consistently engaged in rumour and fake news against Tinubu to win cheap political points, which he said would always fail.
The statement read in part: “The All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council hereby alerts Nigerians about the latest insidious campaign in some parts of the country against our candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
“After exhausting their arsenal of calumnies and character assassination against Tinubu, the opposition PDP and their surrogate Labour Party have begun a multi-pronged desperate campaign of falsehoods.
“In one of the falsehoods being circulated, especially in the North West of the country, Tinubu is said to harbour plans to relocate the Federal Capital from Abuja to Lagos on succeeding President Muhammad Buhari from 29th May, 2023.
“This misinformation campaign, according to field reports, is being given some traction by some elders on the payroll of the Peoples Democratic Party.
“We are shocked that some people could contrive such egregious lie, all in the name of politics, with the intention to confuse our burgeoning support base in that part of the country.
“Let us say with emphasis, that Asiwaju does not contemplate any such plan and will not do anything that is so ultra-unconstitutional.”
Onanuga also accused the main opposition PDP of applying the same distortion it spread in the commercialization of the NNPC to NNPCL by President Muhammadu Buhari.
He added, “The same purveyors of falsehood have also been distorting the commercialization of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited by the APC government of President Muhammadu Buhari.
“The truth is that President Buhari has not privatised NNPC as planned by the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar. Buhari has instead made it a commercial entity, owned by all the tiers of government, in line with the Petroleum Industry Act.
“In due course, the company will be in a position to declare and share dividends to all its owners, the way Aramco of Saudi Arabia and Petrobas of Brazil do.
“As the destined successor of President Buhari, Asiwaju Tinubu will continue the policy of the Buhari administration. Unlike Atiku, Tinubu has no plan to sell NNPC to his friends or cronies.”
