Minister of state, Labour and Employment and Director, Public Affairs of the All Progressives Congress APC
Presidential Campaign Council, Festus Keyamo SAN has reacted to calls by the Labour Party LP asking security agencies to place him on a terror watchlist.
He said, instead, it is the LP presidential candidate, Mr Peter Obi who must be watchlisted.
“I also call on the Security Agencies in Nigeria to place Mr Peter Obi and some of his demented supporters on the terror watch lists for circulating an incendiary video with a fake message by one of his supporters called Powell Glad Legbe (on his Facebook page) calling on Yorubas not to vote for Peter Obi. Mr Peter Obi then wrongly and wickedly attributed that quote to an amorphous ‘Tinubu group’. Up till now he has not withdrawn his accusation nor has he apologised to our candidate Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
“It is obvious Mr. Peter Obi wants to cause religious and tribal crises in the country and for this, I call on the security agencies to place Mr Peter Obi on security watch or invite him for a thorough investigation. If necessary, I am prepared to be invited too as a witness to prove my case against him”, Keyamo stated.
Also, the Director of Media and Publicity of the council, Mr Bayo Onanuga has taken a swipe at Mr Obi, accusing him of having “expanded his catalogue of lies on Monday by playing the medical doctor, declaring Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as unwell for the presidency”.
“He even added most gratuitously that Asiwaju’s supporters are backing him for his money.
“We find these statements unbecoming of a man who nurses the ambition to be Nigeria’s next President”, Onanuga stated.
According to him, the APC standard bearer, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu “is unmatched in the field by even the perennial presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar. He is certainly not in the same league with the rabble-rousing Peter Obi by all leadership parameters”.
Onanuga noted that since Mr Obi is not Tinubu’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.
“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 strategizing 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”, he added.
