Atiku Abubakar, the Peoples Democratic Party presidential candidate, has revealed that Femi Fani-Kayode seizes every opportunity to attack him because
Atiku Abubakar, the Peoples Democratic Party presidential candidate, has revealed that Femi Fani-Kayode seizes every opportunity to attack him because he refused to hire the former minister as a spokesperson for his campaign council.
Atiku said this after Fani-Kayode, a spokesman for the president-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, accused him of sponsoring a ‘defamatory’ report against the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) in a bid to kick him out of office.
“Fani-Kayode’s life story is one of ‘anywhere belle face’. In 2018 he said he would ‘rather die than join a filthy, rat-infested sinking ship like the ‘Almajiri Peoples Congress’ (All Progressives Congress). Then when his pocket began to dry up, he embarked on a nebulous tour of PDP states in search of money.
“Immediately Lawan lost, Fani-Kayode began begging my associates to facilitate an appointment into the media team of the PDP. After he was rejected by Atiku’s camp, Fani-Kayode began following Tinubu all over the place in search of a position in the campaign.
“After Tinubu’s ‘illegitimate’ victory, Fani-Kayode is now lobbying for a new position in the ill-fated government that will be sent packing by the courts,” Phrank Shaibu, the Special Assistant on Public Communication to Atiku, said in a statement.
Fani-Kayode had claimed that earlier media reports alleging that the CJN, Olukayode Ariwoola, travelled to London to secretly meet with Tinubu was sponsored by Atiku and Peter Obi —respective candidates of the PDP and Labour Party in the February 25 presidential election.
“What @PeterObi, @atiku & their thugs did to the CJN is despicable. They lied on him, defamed him, rubbished his reputation & sought to humiliate, blackmail, undermine, destroy & disgrace him out of office. These savages & barbarians seek to destroy all our revered institutions,” the former minister tweeted on Friday.
Atiku and Obi are both challenging the victory of Tinubu at the Presidential Election Petitions
Ariwoola will appoint and possibly lead the justices that will hear Atiku and Obi’s appeals against Tinubu’s victory depending on the outcome of the duo’s suits at the tribunal.
Meanwhile, in his response to Fani-Kayode, Atiku called on the Department of State Services (DSS) to arrest the former minister for making statements capable of setting the country on fire.
The former vice president also commended Ben Llewellyn-Jones, the British Deputy High Commissioner in Lagos, for naming Fani-Kayode among prominent Nigerians who are inciting violence in the country.
Atiku urged the DSS to give attention to Llewellyn-Jones’ report by arresting Fani-Kayode to prevent him from making further inciteful remarks.
“We acknowledge as timely the statement of the DSS’ call on politicians not to overheat the polity. But we call on the security agency to arrest Fani-Kayode for not heeding the counsel of the DSS when he threatened to make Nigeria ungovernable.
“The DSS rightly invited Fani-Kayode after he made false claims about Atiku planning a coup back in January and asked him to report daily. But for some reason, he has continued unhinged to spew hate.
“Recently, he even justified the attacks and the profiling of the Igbo in the recently concluded fraudulent governorship election in Lagos State. He has also threatened to make the country ungovernable if Tinubu is not sworn in.
“I think it’s a good time to remind the DSS that Femi Fani-Kayode has returned to his old ways. Now, he is threatening fire and brimstone over a most contentious election, which Nigerians have refused to endorse or celebrate one full month after the collective disenfranchisement of the electorate.
“Fani-Kayode is threatening that he and some other desperados will make Nigeria ungovernable if Tinubu is not inaugurated on May 29, 2023. It is time to take in Fani-Kayode so he doesn’t inflame any further, the already combustible national angst,” Atiku stated.
