Bola Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, on Monday, December 5, 2022, at Chatham House in London, said he would always stand against electoral violence and intimidation.
He also spoke on a wide range of national issues including security, economy, and foreign policy, ahead of the 2023 general elections.
Tinubu was at Chatham House in the company of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, and Director, Strategic Communication of the APC Presidential Campaign Council (APC PCC), Dele Alake among others.
Chatham House had Nigerians in Diaspora in attendance coming with various questions that were attended to by Tinubu and his political allies.
However, in a statement signed by Tunde Rahman of the Tinubu Media Office, the former Lagos state governor said he had always fought against electoral malpractices and will continue to do so.
“I stand firmly against all forms of electoral violence and intimidation. Having spent most of my career in the political opposition, I have long fought against electoral malpractice and any attempts to extinguish the legitimate choice of voters. I will continue to do so.
“And I urge all my fellow contestants in this election to do the same. Let the sovereign will of the people decide the path of our nation. And let this election be determined by voters making their choice freely rather than the domineering intimidation of the troublesome few,” Tinubu said.
He added, “For one, as Africa’s most populous country and the continent’s largest economy, it is generally acknowledged that the fortunes of the African continent and indeed the Black race is tied directly to the health of Nigeria.”
APC Presidential Council Addresses Reports That Tinubu Plans To Relocate FCT To Lagos
The All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council, APC-PCC, has debunked a rumour it credited to the opposition Peoples Democratic Party and the Labour Party that its candidate in the 2023 presidential election, Bola Tinubu, is planning to relocate Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory from Abuja to Lagos if he becomes president.
The Tinubu campaign council described the rumour as “misinformation campaign” being promoted in the North-West by “some elders on the payroll of the Peoples Democratic Party.”
This is contained in a press statement signed by the Director, Media & Publicity, APC PCC, Bayo Onanuga, on Tuesday, November 29, 2022.
The statement stressed that Tinubu had no plans to relocate the country’s seat of power from its current Abuja location, adding that he would not do anything deemed to be against the constitution of the nation.
The statement read, “The All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council hereby alerts Nigerians about (to) the latest insidious campaign in some parts of the country against our candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
“After exhausting their arsenal of calumnies and character assassination against Tinubu, the opposition PDP and their surrogate Labour Party have begun a multi-pronged desperate campaign of falsehoods.
“In one of the falsehoods being circulated, especially in the North-West of the country, Tinubu is said to harbour plans to relocate the Federal Capital from Abuja to Lagos on succeeding President Muhammadu Buhari from 29th May, 2023.
“This misinformation campaign, according to field reports, is being given some traction by some elders on the payroll of the Peoples Democratic Party.
“We are shocked that some people could contrive such egregious lie, all in the name of politics, with the intention to confuse our burgeoning support-base in that part of the country.
“Let us say with emphasis that Asiwaju does not contemplate any such plan and will not do anything that is so ultra-unconstitutional.
“The same purveyors of falsehood have also been distorting the commercialisation of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited by the APC government of President Muhammadu Buhari.
“The truth is that President Buhari has not privatised the NNPC as planned by the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar. Buhari has instead made it a commercial entity, owned by all the tiers of government, in line with the Petroleum Industry Act.
“In due course, the company will be in a position to declare and share dividends to all its owners, the way Aramco of Saudi Arabia and Petrobas of Brazil do.
“As the destined successor of President Buhari, Asiwaju Tinubu will continue the policy of the Buhari administration. Unlike Atiku, Tinubu has no plan to sell the NNPC to his friends or cronies.”
Source: Vanguard
