2023: You are a liar, Tinubu fires back at Atiku [ARISE TV Interview]

The last is yet to be heard on the verbal war between the candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and the All Progressives Congress (APC) Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

Recall that during an Arise TV interview aired on Friday, Atiku addressed a lot of issues, including claiming that he fell out with Tinubu in 2007 because he (Atiku) was opposed to a Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket.

However, Tinubu has reacted to the interview, describing Atiku as a desperate liar “who should never be entrusted with the presidency”.

In a statement on Saturday, signed by the Director, Media and Communication of Tinubu Campaign Organisation, Mr Bayo Onanuga, Tinubu faulted most of the claims made by Atiku, saying that the APC was extremely shocked by the many lies and ignorance displayed by the PDP presidential candidate.

He said that Atiku bungled the interview, describing him as a lawbreaker.

He said: “In the interview, Alhaji Atiku exposed himself as a man who is not prepared for the job he is applying for and a man who can not be entrusted with our commonwealth. 

“He was flippant in his response to important questions about his record of service and how he made money while serving in Customs. He muddled up facts and exhibited befuddling absence of mind. 

“PDP candidate is a law breaker: It was most shocking Atiku admitted that he cheated the system for decades and engaged in gross misconduct as a government worker.”

Continuing, he said: “As a customs officer at the Idi-Iroko border, Atiku revealed that he ran a commercial taxi service, claiming ‘there is no law stopping public officers from doing business in Nigeria’. He punched harder, claiming there is no conflict of interest in doing so.

“We found this to be untrue. Every officer in the civil service is expected to comply with a code of conduct and service rules, which bar civil and public servants from engaging in private business while in government employment to the detriment of the service he/she is employed to render to the public. 

“The 1999 constitution further codifies this in Part I, Fifth Schedule, Section of 2 (b).

“It says a public officer shall not, except where he is not employed on full-time basis, engage or participate in the management or running of any private business, profession or trade. The rules however allow a public officer to engage in farming.

“We wonder which rule or which law Atiku was relying upon for his gross misconduct as a public officer. It is our considered view that Atiku gamed the system all through his career in public service, culminating in his founding of the Intel Logistics along with Late Shehu Yar’Adua and some Italians, even while he was still in the employment of the Nigeria Customs Service.”

He said Atiku also has a poor knowledge of key sectors of the economy.

He added: “We also found it surprising that the PDP presidential candidate does not know the contribution of oil and gas industry to Nigeria’s GDP. 

“He claimed the sector represents 20% of our national GDP, whereas it is below 10 per cent and it is still falling owing to the growth of non-oil sector under the current All Progressives Congress led administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.

“Atiku Abubakar wanted to impress his audience with his supposed knowledge of international affairs. He ended up embarrassing himself with false data he cited from Egypt. 

“We found his claim that Egypt has 2 million police officers on the streets to be untrue. Various sources put the number at about 500,000 for a population of 104 million and not 80 million as falsely claimed by Atiku.”