2023: Atiku Cautions Fani-Kayode, Onanuga Over ‘Inciting’ Speeches Against Igbos

Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, has cautioned the spokesmen for Tinubu/Shettima Presidential Campaign Council – Bayo Onanuga and Femi Fani-Kayode over alleged inciting speeches against Igbos in Lagos

Atiku, in a statement by his Special Assistant on Public Communication, Mr. Phrank Shaibu, said their statements were a reflection of their principal who two days after the elections, had failed to condemn the violence.

Atiku stated that the Nigerian constitution permits anyone in every part of the country to vote and be voted for regardless of religion, gender and tribe.

He said what Tinubu had done was to return and reverse some of the democratic gains that Nigeria had made.

He said: “Bayo Onanuga, a hitherto respected journalist who claimed to have contributed to the fight against dictatorship, is now supporting injustice and attacks on the Igbo for daring to vote in Lagos. This is what happens when you associate yourself with Bola Tinubu. Your mind and soul get corrupted.

“For Fani-Kayode, a man who was Nnamdi Kanu’s handbag, he has suddenly become an ethnic supremacist, encouraging the suppression of the Igbo people in Lagos all in a bid to impress his paymaster We never expected much from this Jekyll and Hyde.

“What the tribal bigots like Bayo Onanuga and Fani-Kayode will not tell you is that Ireti Kingibe, a Yoruba woman, has just been elected into the Senate to represent the FCT.

Atiku also lambasted Tinubu’s campaign for calling on the National Broadcasting Commission to fine TV and radio stations that continue to invite Peter Obi of the Labour Party for interviews challenging Tinubu’s legitimacy.

Atiku commended rights group, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), for asking a Federal High Court to bar the NBC from suspending the licence of broadcast stations

He said: “Tinubu’s campaign team has already given us a glimpse of what his administration will look like. It will be about the suppression of voters’ rights, unimaginable corruption, repression of freedom of speech, and a total compromise of government agencies.

“For a man who rose to power over the claim that he led the struggle for the actualization of the June 12 mandate, this is another Nigerian tragedy.”