Former Governor of Lagos, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu has lashed out at The Minister of State for Defence, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro, accusing him and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) led government as merely using the Boko Haram insurgency as a “conduit to siphon Nigeria’s money.”
Tinubu proffered the accusation on Wednesday in reaction to a statement credited to Obanikoro that Tinubu and the All Progressives Party (APC) are politicising the fight against Boko Haram.
In a press statement signed by Tinubu’s Media Adviser, Sunday Dare, the former governor challenged Obanikoro and PDP to explain why it has not been able to rescue the more than 200 schoolgirls kidnapped in Chibok since April, despite huge budgetary allocations to security.
“The defence budget to fight Boko Haram and Terrorism has become a conduit pipe for the ruling party PDP just as the likes of Obanikoro continue to use Boko Haram as a tool of blackmail against the opposition,” Tinubu said.
“This time, just like it failed in the past, it will not stick. It will not stand. It is the PDP led government in which Obanikoro is an active and pliable agent that is perpetrating the insurgency for pecuniary benefits. This government has no shame. It lacks the moral authority to point fingers at individuals or the opposition. The country is literarily on tenterhooks and all the PDP can do is lie to Nigerians in order to cover up its failures.”
Tinubu further stated that Obanikoro’s accusation of him and APC as Boko Haram’s creators is fallacious and untenable. He described such allegation as a fable that can only come out of the mouth of someone who is delusional, saying it was a sure product of Obanikoro’s power drunkenness.
“This allegation is both unreasonable and unsustainable, but not surprising coming from the person it came from,” Tinubu said.
“Bola Tinubu and the APC have been on record repeatedly condemning killings and bombings by Boko Haram and proffering solutions to the menace.”
He then pointed out that PDP is only preparing the grounds for its next round of hounding opposition leaders, militarising cities and violating the democratic rights of Nigerians to move freely.
“This is political Boko Haram of which the PDP is the chief architect,” Tinubu said.
“In Ekiti we saw a dress rehearsal of the impunity and near brigandage of this government and its agents.”
He urged Nigerians to be vigilant before a few desperate persons steal their voices, rights, liberties and freedoms.
