The campaign team of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has described the recent endorsement of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) by the pan-Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere, on Sunday, October 30, 2022, as a display of his tribal championship.
The Quest Times reports that Tinubu paid Afenifere leader, Pa Reuben Fasoranti and other chieftains a visit on Sunday, October 30, 2022, to present his Action Plan. The meeting ended with Pa Fasoranti blessing Tinubu.
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The PDP Presidential Campaign Spokesman, Dr Daniel Bwala in a statement on Monday, October 31, 2022, further questioned the endorsement due to the absence of Afenifere leader, Pa Ago Adebanjo who has endorsed Peter Obi, LP presidential candidate and Secretary-General, Chief Sola Ebiseni.
He made this known in a Twitter threat in reaction to the reported endorsement.
According to Bwala, “Tinubu has made no secret about his tribal championship and utter disregard for other ethnic people in southern Nigeria. This to say the least is sad and terribly troubling and Nigerians should rise and condemn this rhetoric at the polls.”
In a scathing attack where he described Tinubu as a tribal champion, he also queried why Afenifere did not invite other frontline presidential candidates, granting an audience to just Tinubu.
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In the thread, he wrote “In what seems like the crawling of a rat at night to steal meat from the pot, Tinubu paid a strange visit to Pa Fatoramti; strange because it was not an organized setting of the usual meeting of the highly respected Afenifere; needless to say the leader of the group Pa Adebanjo and the secretary were obviously absent when he went to in a Gestapo manner.
“First off, the Afenifere we know has through their leader made known their position as to who they support and it was certainly not Tinubu. Secondly, if it were a meeting seeking to know the right person to support or endorse amongst the candidates it ought to have at least invited the leading candidates to hear their take on what plans they have for the country that caters to the interests of Afenifere.”
“So to Tinubu, the race to become the president of Nigeria is a trophy to be won and taken to his ethnic enclave. He was not only wrong in his tribal insinuation that not a single Yoruba opposed the ticket, but he also lied because lots of Yorubas took strong objections to the same faith ticket and to his divisive and religious politics.
“To say that his ticket is supported by all Yorubas is, to say the least disingenuous, false, and condemnable,” he noted.