The All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council stated on Tuesday that, contrary to popular belief, its Presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, is in good health.
This comes as the former Lagos State governor’s camp described the APC’s national leader as a Trojan horse who works 20 hours a day.
The clarification comes in the wake of Labour Party Candidate Peter Obi’s claim that Tinubu is unfit to lead the country.
At Monday’s LP retreat in Abuja, the former governor of Anambra State subtly criticized the APC presidential candidate, urging Nigerians to vote for a leader they can trust rather than one who sees the presidency as his turn to rule.
He said, “Next year’s elections will not be based on ethnicity. It will not be by turn, it is nobody’s turn. It must not be by connection. The election next year must be based on character and trust; it must be based on competence.”
In a statement issued in Abuja on Tuesday, Bayo Onanuga, Director of Media and Publicity for the APC Presidential Campaign Council, called Obi an “incurable liar.”
Onanuga urged Nigerians to inquire whether the Labour Party presidential candidate had obtained a medical certificate that would allow him to declare Tinubu unfit for the presidency.
The statement partly read, “We want to make it crystal clear to all the traducers of the All Progressives Congress presidential candidate that Asiwaju Tinubu is not ill. He is hale and hearty. A man who works for 20 hours a day, meeting people and strategising about finding solutions to Nigeria’s problems, cannot be said to be ill. We make bold to say that our candidate is as fit as the fiddle.
“We find these statements unbecoming of a man who nurses the ambition to be Nigeria’s next President. Since he is not Asiwaju’s doctor and is not privy to his medical record, Obi has again disgracefully elevated what has for long been a beer parlour gossip and social media lie being propagated by his IPOB supporters. Obi in his characteristic manner is amplifying falsehood which should not have a place in a decent political campaign.
“We believe that political leaders should be guided in their utterances and be sticklers for the truth, but Obi has thrown all caution to the wind, pronouncing on issues he has no moral and professional competence to make a judgement call on.”
Continuing, Onanuga explained that millions of Tinubu’s supporters are rooting for him because of their strong belief in his leadership and not because of pecuniary benefits.
This is even as he described Obi as a dangerous politician with a penchant for distorting facts and statistics.
“The supporters are supporting him (Tinubu) because they believe in his capacity as a transformative leader, who once made a historic mark in Lagos State and is capable of replicating the same in Nigeria.
“Coming so soon after his gaffe and falsehood in accusing Tinubu of mobilising Yoruba voters not to support him, Obi is coming across as a dangerous politician and a demagogue capable of spewing all manners of lies just to get the votes.
“Already discredited with statistical lies and fallacies, Obi is now treading new ground, spreading lies with unfounded claims on Asiwaju Tinubu’s health.
“A politician who left no worthy legacy in eight years as governor of Anambra state, who instead built his own family ‘Next Cash and Carry’ retail mall in Port Harcourt and Abuja not in Awka, the capital of the state he governed, is latching on lies after lies to hoodwink his motley crowd of impressionistic and gullible followers.
“We must warn Peter Obi to desist from politics of falsehood. We advise him to canvass on issues and for once give his hollow campaign some credibility by refraining from telling lies,” he said.
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