The All Progressives Congress on Tuesday blasted former Vice President Atiku Abubakar over his allegation that President Bola Tinubu’s administration paid N50 million bribe to opposition parties to weaken their leadership ahead of the 2027 election.
This was as the opposition parties denied receiving such inducements from the Tinubu-led government.
The opposition parties, which included the Peoples Democratic Party, New Nigeria People’s Party, Labour Party and Social Democratic Party, debunked the allegations in separate interviews.
Atiku made the allegation while speaking as a panellist at a national conference on strengthening democracy in Nigeria in Abuja on Monday.
The conference was organised by the African Centre for Leadership, Strategy and Development, the Centre for Democracy and Development, the Westminster Foundation for Democracy, the Peering Advocacy and Advancement Centre in Africa, and the National Peace Committee.
The former VP warned that the country was on the verge of losing its hard-earned democracy if it continued on the current trajectory.
I want to make this public. I met with leaders of a political party in the opposition, and they openly admitted that this government gives them N50m each,” Atiku asserted.
Reacting in an interview with The PUNCH, the National Publicity Director of the APC, Bala Ibrahim, expressed disappointment in Atiku, saying an elder statesman like him should not been seen making flippant allegations.
Ibrahim also challenged him to prove his claim by providing concrete evidence to substantiate his argument.
He said, “From what I know of the law, the presumption is that you are innocent until proven otherwise. Until Atiku Abubakar is able to substantiate and prove this allegation of bribery, his submission does not have any ground for recognition. So he needs to go beyond making allegations.
He has to come up with facts and proof on who gave the money, to whom it was given, where and for what purpose. Unless that is done, everything he said stands in the realm of allegations and they will be flimsy allegations until he is able to substantiate and prove those.
These are people that are held in esteem by the society.
Also, the National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Felix Morka, released a statement, describing Atiku’s N50m bribery allegation as ‘simply bogus and laughable.’
According to him, peddling rumours and unsubstantiated allegations were signs of desperation by the former VP.
Atiku’s allegation that the APC-led administration was paying out N50m to some opposition figures is simply bogus and laughable.
Atiku knows that his political desperation is responsible for the PDP’s catastrophic disintegration.
Peddling rumours and unsubstantiated allegations should be beneath anyone in the standing of an elder statesman, a former Vice President and a serial contestant for the exalted office of President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” he stated.
The APC spokesman further criticised the trio of Atiku, his counterpart in the Labour Party, Peter Obi, and a former Governor of Kaduna state, Malam Nasir El-Rufai, over their allegation that the ruling party may have been sponsoring the crisis in the opposition the ruling party amid talks of a coalition.
He said, “The bizarre suggestion by opposition figures like Atiku, Peter Obi, and recently, aggrieved leaders like Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, that our great party may be complicit in the internal corrosion of opposition parties is pitiful, and only an incompetent alibi for their crass failure to manage their own affairs.
They cannot govern their parties but tout their ability to govern Africa’s most populous country. We cannot possibly forget how Atiku’s PDP heavy-handedly captured most South-West states and vowed to remain in power for 60 years.
It was in those same years that Atiku’s former boss and then President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, infamously described the election as a “do or die affair” in a desperate attempt to annex Lagos.
We deserve better than petty politicking and alarmist rhetoric from an elder statesman.
Meanwhile, the Labour Party has denied being a party to the alleged N50m bribe, saying they never received such money.
In an interview with The KUKURUKU, the National Youth Leader of LP, Prince Kennedy Ahanotu, described the said amount as an insult to the party.
