PDP, Atiku slam Lai Mohammed over accusation of sabotage

The Federal Government has condemned the increasingly `unpatriotic and desperate’ opposition politics being played by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.
But the PDP has told the Minister and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to stop whining and face its self-inflicted woes.
Atiku Abubakar speaking through his aide, Mazi Paul Ibe, said it is not surprising that a ‘despicable lie is emanating from Mr. Lai Mohammed,
‘Lai Mohammed is so associated with lies that even Vice President Yemi Osinbajo said, on Monday, May 13, 2019, as follows:
‘”People like Lai Mohammed, Abba Kyari, Adamu Adamu they are usually very well behaved during the Ramadan. But I’m not even sure that that is true anymore.”
‘When we have a situation where even those who employed him know that Lai Mohammed is a liar, who will even lie during the holy month of Ramadan, then why should Nigerians be surprised at this latest lie?’
He reminded Lai that Atiku Abubakar resisted the Abacha dictatorship, of which President Muhammadu Buhari was a prominent member, and it is his resistance and the sacrifice of his co-travellers, like Chief MKO Abiola and Alex Ekwueme, amongst others, that gave rise to the democracy that the current government is now trampling on.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, made his condemnation when he addressed State House correspondents in Abuja on Wednesday, warned that such opposition could be toxic for the nation’s democracy, if left unchecked.
“Never in the history of politics in Nigeria has an opposition party and its presidential candidate exhibited the kind of desperate tactics being deployed by the duo of the PDP and its flag-bearer, especially since President Muhammadu Buhari overwhelmingly defeated Atiku to win the 2019 presidential election.
“Either by themselves or via their proxies, the PDP and its presidential candidate are doing everything possible to sabotage the Buhari Administration, generally overheat the polity and make Nigeria seemingly ungovernable, especially through their public utterances and their poorly-thought-out press releases before and after the 2019 general elections.
“Unless they quickly retrace their steps, they may, sooner than later, overreach themselves.
“For those who may be quick to accuse the government of crying wolf, the pre-election statement credited to the former Vice President, that unless Nigerians vote out the APC Administration, killings by herdsmen will continue and ultimately spark a series of ethno-religious crises that will be irreversible, is looking more like a Freudian slip than anything else.
The minister also noted that in recent times, the PDP had taken its desperation to a new level by attacking the judiciary, “an action many see as indicating a reversal of the party’s hitherto self-assured stance that it has a solid case against the election of the President.
“And either by coincidence or orchestration, a faceless group emerges from nowhere calling for an overthrow of a democratically-elected government, a totally egregious act of treason.
“It beggars belief that a candidate who prides himself as a democrat can so allow desperation to becloud his sense of propriety to such an extent that he will be associating with anti-democratic forces or making inflammatory statements.
According to the minister, for acclaimed democrats, there are acceptable channels of seeking redress after an election defeat.
He noted that even President Buhari himself went to court three times to challenge election results.
“What is not acceptable is to either resort to self-help after an election defeat, or to embark on a journey of subterfuge and sabotage while also mounting a legal challenge or pretending to do so.
“Worst still, painting the judiciary bad for whatever reason is anti-democratic and unconscionable.’’
The minister, therefore, urged the main opposition party to stop beating the drums of war but to concentrate on the “legal challenge by its candidate against the election of President Buhari if indeed they have any faith in the country’s judiciary’’.
He also called on the opposition to desist from unnecessarily overheating the polity.
The PDP accused the Minister of Information and Culture of veering off issues of governance and hurling insults, misplaced accusations and threats against our party and our Presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar.
The party adds: “The minister’s tone, to say the least, betrays the frustration of a failed administration seeking excuses and scapegoats, instead of accepting its failures and self-inflicted woes.
“It is incontrovertible that the PDP, as a highly responsible political party, committed to the unity and stability of our dear nation, nurtured our democracy for 16 years and has continued to express its full respect for every arm of government including the judiciary
“It is equally undisputable that the All Progressives Congress (APC), within a period of four years, has wrecked our democratic structures, relegated and harassed judicial officers, disregarded our laws and judicial pronouncements, divided our people and practically brought our nation to its knees only for them to now turn to look for scapegoats where there are none.
“It is instructive to state that, in the course of serving our dear nation for sixteen years, the PDP was never known for intimidating and harassing judicial officers at any level.
“It is therefore unfortunate that the Minister of Information and Culture could suddenly recourse to making irresponsible allegations against the PDP and our Presidential candidate instead of accepting their failures.
“As a party we consider it awkward for the APC and its government, under whose only four years tenure, our judiciary has been thoroughly embarrassed, to make frivolous allegations against our party and Presidential candidate.
“It is manifestly clear that the PDP and our Presidential candidate are in court to seek justice and the issues of bias raised by our party are in public domain and in the general interest of majority of Nigerians who gave their Presidential mandate to Atiku Abubakar.
“The fact remains that the APC and its failed government owe it as a responsibility to be accountable to Nigerians; the PDP has a constitutional role to play in this accountability process and our party will not shy away from it.
“The PDP therefore charges the Federal Government to stop inventing excuses and making frivolous allegations of treason for its mass failures.
“The expectation of Nigerians is for the Buhari Presidency to live up to the demands of their offices instead of blaming our party for their self-inflicted woes.
In his own response, the media aide to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, Mr. Paul Ibe, said Lai Mohammed is only being clever by half when he says “It beggars belief that a candidate who prides himself as a democrat can so allow desperation to becloud his sense of propriety to such an extent that he will be associating with anti-democratic forces or making inflammatory statements.”
He adds: “Atiku Abubakar is a man of peace and a thoroughbred democrat. It is preposterous  that those who threatened to ‘soak the dog and the baboon in blood’ are now audacious enough to point the finger at lifelong democrats. Truly, if the farmer does not raise the alarm on time, the thief will accuse him of being a thief.
“How can a man who wined and dined with Nigeria’s most brutal dictator, how can a man who overthrew a democratically elected President and held a grudge against him even in death (as evidenced by the empty condolence register he left in Sokoto, last year) accuse a man who has never been as much as associated with such tendencies, of being an anti-democrat?
“We want to know why the desperation on the part of the Muhammadu Buhari government to rope in the Peoples Democratic Party and its Presidential candidate in phantom plots?  Obviously, President Buhari wants to replay the Phantom plot saga of his now deceased mentor, who threw former President Olusegun Obasanjo in jail after falsely accusing him of treason in order to perpetuate himself in power.
“Could it be that they are now aware that the electoral fraud they perpetrated during the last Presidential election is about to be exposed beyond a shadow of a doubt?
“If anybody is “beating the drums of war”, it is precisely those who have issued statements threatening Nigerians and foreigners alike with “body bags”…
“Mr. Lai Mohammed is advised to face the cesspool of corruption that has been exposed in his ministry by the investigative website, Premium Times, which revealed that Mr. Mohammed’s fingers may be stickier than sticky glue”.
Additional reports by NAN