Dino Melaye, a spokesman for the People’s Democratic Party presidential campaign council, claimed that the only reason Governors Nasir El-Rufai, Yahaya Bello, and Bello Matawalle sued President Muhammadu Buhari over the naira redesign policy was their fear of losing their anticipated benefits in the “unlikely” event that Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress won the election.
The governors of the states of Kaduna, Kogi, and Zamfara filed a lawsuit against the federal government earlier this week, asking the court to halt further implementation of the naira redesign policy due to what they described as the hardship caused to their citizens who find it difficult to exchange their old naira notes for new ones, particularly those residing in rural areas.
The three governors, who are all APC members, requested a temporary restraining order from the court in an ex parte motion filed through their attorney, AbdulHakeem Mustapha, asking the court to prevent the Federal Government from enforcing the deadline of February 10 for replacing the old 200, 500, and 1000 notes with new ones.
“Unless this Honourable Court intervenes, the Government and people of Kaduna, Kogi and Zamfara States will continue to go through a lot of hardship and would ultimately suffer great loss as a result of the insufficient and unreasonable time within which the Federal Government is embarking on the ongoing currency redesign policy,” Mustapha said.
In a statement signed by Melaye on Tuesday, however, the former federal lawmaker said, “Those who have positioned themselves to benefit from the unlikely and inconceivable Tinubu presidency are feeling so threatened, hopeless and rudderless that they have even now taken their own President to court over his refusal to endorse their evil agenda of using public funds to buy votes. As it happened in the Egypt of old, their money has failed in their hands.”
The statement added, “Frightened by the unmistakable and unstoppable prospects of the loss of the presidential election, the APC has, in panic mode, resorted to outright falsehood against Atiku Abubakar, the imaginary APC cabal in the Villa, the Governor of Central Bank, the Managing Director of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, and even the leader of their party, President Muhammadu Buhari.
“The current narrative being peddled is anchored on a conspiracy theory involving the aforementioned in an agenda that reflects ethnic pursuit. Having boasted that the APC has money to buy votes and having failed to mask behind a pretentious preference of power shift to the South, the new song is now against the indomitable Atiku as the favourite of the powers in Aso Rock, the Governor of the Central Bank and the Managing Director of NNPC. And I ask if the humiliated Nigerian masses and the key figures of the APC administration are against APC in an election year, how can it think of victory in the Presidential election?
“Going by the propagated lies of the power hawks in APC led by Nasir El-Rufai, all things have ever been done to favour Atiku. By their postulation, the APC cabal in Aso Rock has done everything to favour Atiku, including the trillions of naira debt overhang, the spiralling inflation, insecurity, fuel scarcity, job losses, brain drain and unemployment.”
He further noted that unlike, Tinubu, “Atiku is advancing rapidly to breast the tape. Like a striker on the soccer field, his opponents and defenders are doing everything to launch a sliding tackle. At this stage of the game, Atiku is already in the penalty box. The more the tackles, the greater his prospect of scoring. And with the panic defense being launched by the APC, it is obvious that they have, by their own confusion, scored an own goal. Head or tail, Atiku is the winner, as we now have the hosting fans booing their own home team and applauding the opponent.”
