There are plans to either frame up All Progressives Congress (APC) National Leader Asiwaju Bola Tinubu in a murder case or eliminate him before the general elections, his Media Office raised the alarm yesterday.
In a statement in Lagos, the office said that the motive is to halt the momentum the APC presidential standard bearer, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, is gathering, ahead of the March 28 and April 11 elections.
According to the statement, the Presidency and the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)are behind the plot to implicate the eminent politician and remove him from circulation, until the elections are over.
The motive, added the statement, is to weaken Tinubu’s political influence nationwide and undermine his leadership in the politics of Southwest geo-political zone, which is perceived as the deciding factor during the presidential election.
It stressed: “ This part of the plot has two options. The first is to employ trained snipers to attack Tinubu or assassinate him out right. This plan is consistent with the warning made by former President Obasanjo in his now famous 2014 letter to President Jonathan. Those within the PDP favouring this approach argue that when Chief Bola Ige, a powerful politician, was murdered, heavens did not fall, although the former President, is a Yoruba man.
“The second option is more crafty. The PDP will seek to resuscitate the case of the murder of Funso Williams, a former Lagos State governorship candidate, by blaming Tinubu for the killing. They are already coaching inmates and others. They are offering them the promise of early release and money, if they will make statements implicating Tinubu in the Williams murder. The Presidency intends to rush through this process with the hope of putting Tinubu out of circulation by trapping him in a contrived criminal process, until the elections are over.”
Chiding the PDP for desperation, the media office said the ruling party resorted to the option of planning to liquidate Tinubu, following the failure of its design to fracture the APC.
It added: “The PDP and Jonathan Presidency had recently tried to fracture the APC by offering Tinubu the position of the Vice President in an interim government, if he would agree to part company with the popular Buhari. Once Tinubu rebuffed the offer to participate in the interim scheme, the Presidency decided to change tactics. It would no longer try to entice Tinubu with sugar, but would now move to silence and, if necessary, neutralise him.”
Noting that the APC National Leader has caused President Jonathan’s team sleepless nights during the electioneering, it said the hostility against him peaked, following his rejection of the offer to participate in the proposed interim government.
Tinubu, according to the media office, has asserted himself as a legitimate opposition leader through his prolific, robust and strident criticism of government’s socio-economic and security policies.
It stressed: “They blame him as the man who is most responsible for placing them in their current electoral quandary. They believe without Tinubu’s efforts, the successful merger of the political parties into the APC would not have occurred and they would not be facing possible defeat at the hands of this new party.
“The PDP faces its stiffest competition ever in 16 years and the person they blame the most is Tinubu, the major actor, who is seen as the strategic mind of the new party and one person who must be stopped at all cost. General Buhari has since been pencilled down for similar character assassination and vicious insults alongside other leaders of the APC.”
The media office recalled previous plots to dent Tinubu’s image by dredging discredited claims of illicit wealth to silence him.
It said when the plot to disgrace the former governor at the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) collapsed, the Presidency and the PDP opted for new plots to throw the APC into disarray to brighten its prospects of winning the election.
The media office said that Tinubu will not take these threats, plots and revelations lightly because of what it described as the government’s capacity for devilish acts.
It added: “For the party that boasts it will rule Nigeria for 60 years, it has become an unexpected season of political desperation. The PDP is worried that, on March 28, they will discover that they have fallen 44 years short of their dynastic goal. By all accounts, this has caused them to consider very drastic plots and schemes.
”Nigerians are confronted with a ruling party willing to descend to the lowest to win elections. Perceived political enemies are being hunted. Trumped-up allegations are being manufactured daily from the government factory of lies to taint the leading figures in the APC.”
