PDP coalition, aide deny Atiku received Sanwo-Olu’s funds for 2023 campaign

By Chinelo Obogo

The Peoples Democratic Party Coalition (PDPCo), a non-profit group under the PDP, has denied reports that Atiku Abubakar, the party’s presidential candidate in the 2023 election, received financial support from Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos to finance his campaign.

The group described the allegation as a campaign of calumny targeted at debasing the image of the former Vice President and challenged those behind the claim to make public their findings. The denial by the PDPCo was also echoed by the former Vice President’s media aide, Paul Ibe, in a statement released on Thursday.

The National Coordinator of PDPCo, Dr Emeka Kalu, challenged the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), which was linked with the allegation, to present their findings to the public on the matter.

Kalu said in a statement on Friday that Atiku had no personal dealings with the Governor of Lagos State as claimed in the report. He wondered how Sanwo-Olu would have worked against President Bola Tinubu, saying, “I condemn the baseless and unfounded rumours being peddled against the 2023 PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, accusing him of receiving financial assistance from Babajide Sanwo-Olu to fund his presidential campaign.”

“It is highly debasing for anyone in his right thinking to imagine that Atiku approached the Lagos State governor for financial support and received same during an election where Tinubu was desperately bent on deploying all forms of tactics to grab power at all costs.”

“It is an extreme act of Machiavelli’s schemes for APC to fabricate false narratives against a respected national figure in the standing of Atiku Abubakar who has no personal dealings with the governor of Lagos State as claimed by the falsehood peddlers.”

Kalu said that in the history of Atiku’s political career, he had never relied on undue financial gratifications from government officials to finance his elections and such character-assassinating reports against his values must be halted.

He said the allegation was being peddled against Atiku to undermine him and that if the former Vice President had not been robbed of his victory at the polls, he would have turned around the economy of the country and improved the image of Nigeria in the comity of nations.

Kalu said that no amount of calumny peddled against Atiku will frustrate his ambition to lead a campaign against bad governance since the APC took over power at the centre. He said that under the watch of the present government, the nation’s economy has collapsed with no hope of revival except an entirely new administration is achieved.

“Ordinarily, the mischief makers were expected to have known that Atiku is such a man that hardly throws in the towel, especially in a fight he believes is capable of achieving a politically sanitised society for Nigeria’s people.”

“As a selfless man who firmly believes in a government of national unity, I stand to categorically demand that the APC government disembarks from her high horse and admit to Nigerians for failing to lead and promote good governance than shifting blames to Atiku Abubakar whose reputation continuously stands tall in the nation’s leadership scales of excellence and integrity,” he said.