The Presidential Candidate of the African Democratic Congress, Atiku Abubakar, has dismissed the Presidency’s claim that he remained silent following the rescue of the abducted Oyo State schoolchildren and teachers.
He described the allegation as a reckless distortion of facts that collapses under the weight of documentary evidence.
In a statement issued on Saturday by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku said there were only two possible explanations for the Presidency’s outburst.
“In a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku said there are only two possible explanations for the Presidency’s latest outburst: either its media handlers were too lazy to acquaint themselves with publicly available facts before rushing to attack the opposition, or they were too embarrassed by the substance of his statement to acknowledge its existence,” the statement read.The statement quoted Atiku as saying, “It is astonishing that a Presidency with limitless public resources could accuse someone of silence without carrying out the most basic verification.
“Either they failed to read our statement because they were too lazy to do so, or they deliberately ignored it because it exposed uncomfortable truths about their misplaced priorities.”
The reaction followed comments by the Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, who had accused Atiku of failing to acknowledge the release of the pupils and teachers almost 18 hours after their rescue.
Onanuga had also faulted the former vice president for what he called a pattern of criticising the government over the abduction while commending the Labour Party’s Peter Obi for reacting to the development.
But Atiku insisted he had issued a comprehensive press statement earlier on Saturday, titled ‘A Nation at War Needs a Commander-in-Chief, Not a Campaigner-in-Chief’, in which he welcomed the rescue and commended the security agencies involved.
“For the benefit of Nigerians and to expose the falsehood being circulated by the Presidency, we reproduce below the relevant portions of that statement,” the statement added, referencing a screenshot excerpt attached to the release.
Atiku maintained that the reproduced excerpts exposed the Presidency’s allegation as entirely false. He said he had not only congratulated the security agencies but also praised their courage, professionalism and sacrifice.
“What we declined to do was to applaud a Commander-in-Chief who, at a defining moment of national importance, remained publicly preoccupied with partisan political activities instead of personally leading the nation in celebrating the success of our troops and reassuring families whose loved ones remain in captivity,” he said.
He added that no amount of propaganda could erase the questions raised in his earlier statement, pointing to children still held in Borno State and elsewhere.
“The rescue of the Oyo schoolchildren brought joy to the nation, but Nigerians are still asking: when will the children abducted in Borno and other innocent citizens across the country also regain their freedom? Those questions remain unanswered,” he said. Punch
