Special adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan on media and publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati has asked the national publicity secretary of All Progressives Congress (APC), Alhaji Lai Muhammed to look for another target and leave the President alone.
Reacting to the APC spokesman’s allegation that President Jonathan went to Lagos yesterday to plan the rigging of the governorship electiontomorrow, Dr. Abati said that Lai Mohammed’s fatuous tale does not make any sense.
“I repeat: we will like to advise that the APC should just leave the President alone. President Jonathan was a candidate in the presidential election; he did not rig the election. Why would he want to rig tomorrow’s elections?”
Abati, in a chat with newsmen at the Presidential Villa, Abuja today, faulted Lai Muhammed who had earlier accused the President of going to Lagos to rig the uubernatorial and State House of Assembly elections scheduled for Saturday, April 11.
He made it clear that Lai Mohammed was lying as usual even as he referred to him as being “rude.”
Abati admitted that people like the leader of the notorious Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC), Gani Adams: a minister in Jonathan’s cabinet, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro; the governorship candidate of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mr. Jimi Agbaje as well as many others visited him while in Lagos and asked: “So what?
“Anytime the President is in Lagos or any part of the country, a lot of people come to pay homage to him. Nothing unusual happened during his last visit to Lagos. Senator Musiliu Obanikoro’s visit to the President in Lagos is not something that anybody should use to play politics. Obanikoro is a Minister of the Federal Republic. He came to see his boss.
“Mr. Jimi Agbaje is the Governorship candidate of the PDP in Lagos. I don’t see how his visit to the President, who is also the leader of his party, the PDP, should become an issue.
“Yes, Gani Adams also visited, but so did a lot of other people.”
Dr. Abati swore that the President did not hold meetings with the officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), neither did he meet with the police, or polling officials or with anybody who is involved in organising elections.
“So to say that the President went to Lagos to supervise the rigging of Saturday’s election is most uncharitable and cruel.
“After the Presidential election, the President immediately congratulated General Buhari and the whole world has commended him for saving Nigeria. President Jonathan’s sportsmanship, statesmanship and leadership saved this country at that critical moment. He has demonstrated his commitment to free and fair election, the rule of law and due process. He has shown that he is a man of character, honour and integrity. Nigerians generally are proud of him. He has left a worthy legacy and shown a great example. “That, obviously, is the narrative that Lai Mohammed and his masters want to change, so they are now cooking up meaningless tales.”
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