TheCable

The All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential campaign council has asked Atiku Abubakar, flagbearer of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), to come clean about his health status.

The APC campaign council claimed that Abubakar’s recent visit to the United Kingdom was for “some medical help”.

TheCable had reported how the PDP presidential candidate travelled to London where he met with officials of the UK government.

Dino Melaye, the spokesperson of the PDP presidential campaign council, said the former vice-president was invited by the British government.

Bayo Onanuga, spokesperson of APC campaign council, in a statement on Wednesday, claimed that Abubakar’s UK visit was “camouflaged” as a meeting with British officials instead of a medical visit.

The APC campaign council also asked the PDP presidential candidate to respond to recent allegations linking him to corruption.

“It’s time for Atiku Abubakar, the 76-year-old presidential candidate of Peoples Democratic Party, to come clean over two issues clouding his campaign: his health status and his scandalous confession of how he colluded with his former boss, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, to fleece the Nigerian treasury, using the special purpose vehicles after he became Vice-President in 1999,” the statement reads.

“If Atiku has some modicum of honour, he ought to have stepped down from the race that he is bound to lose again, following the release of his audio clip, in which he provides a vivid explanation into the modus operandi of his legendary corruption.

“So far, there has been no notable response from Atiku’s camp about the disturbing revelation, except for a futile attempt to disown the whistleblower, Michael Achimugu, a media consultant to Atiku.

“Nigerians are appalled that Atiku and PDP are so shameless that they have shrugged off the bombshell. We implore Nigerians, however, to hold Atiku to account over the shocking revelation by rejecting him at the polls in February.

“Atiku is also not talking about his health status even when his hirelings daily make futile attempts to divert public attention to his main rival by cooking up lies upon lies, whereas Atiku is the candidate that Nigerians should be sorely worried about.

“The lies of several years and the various diversionary tactics are no longer sustainable. Atiku’s edifice of lies is about to crash on him. The PDP presidential candidate is certainly not okay, the papering efforts notwithstanding.

“We have it on good authority that Atiku indeed fell ill, while missing on the field. He was indeed in the UK for some medical help, though handlers camouflage that he was there on the invitation of some British officials at Whitehall, in a mimic of the earlier visit of the APC rival, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

“Despite the efforts by his handlers to showcase Atiku as healthy and physically fit to endure the rigours of the presidential campaign, pictures from rallies have belied this.

“Campaign pictures sometimes showed him being helped to descend steps at stadia. Sometimes, he walked with an apparent handicap, dragging his feet.”

Meanwhile, the APC campaign council’s comment comes amid recent speculations over the health status of Bola Tinubu, APC presidential candidate.