Former Vice President and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has revealed that President Muhammadu Buhari ordered Sunday’s search of his jet.
Recall that Atiku had revealed how security agents searched his person and plane at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja on Sunday, a move he said was orchestrated to intimidate him ahead of the 2019 presidential election.
In a Monday statement through the Atiku Campaign Organisation in Abuja, the Waziri Adamawa said that only President Buhari could have ordered such a search in his capacity as the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces.
The statement read, “On November 5, 2018, exactly a week ago today, the All Progressives Congress released an official statement accusing former Vice President Atiku Abubakar of having strategy meetings for the purpose of moving ‘illicit cash’ into Nigeria and they asked the security services to investigate HE Atiku Abubakar and his plane.
“To quote from the APC’s statement, the ruling party said ‘Our intelligence, anti-graft and security agencies must be awake to their responsibility of investigating the Dubai meeting.
“‘Cash-and-carry politicians must be prevented from moving illicit cash around to induce voters and sponsor election violence and rigging.
“‘Again, relevant agencies must check suspicious movement of cash both locally and internationally by politically exposed persons under the guise of a ‘Dubai meeting’ or any clandestine meeting’.
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“They thereafter asked the security services to search aircraft belonging to members of the Peoples Democratic Party.
“That statement evinced an obvious premeditated intention by the APC and its Federal Government to deliberately embarrass the former Vice President by invading his plane with security personnel and possibly to set him up for the crimes they had already officially accused him of in their statement.
“The official denial by the All Progressives Congress and the Presidency of any hand in the ordeal of the former Vice President is put to lie when you examine their statement of last week which was clearly what was implemented against the former Vice President. It also shows that both parties have no credibility and will do or say anything to further their interests.
“The statement by the aviation ministry that the search of Atiku Abubakar’s plane is ‘routine’ is an afterthought that does not hold water for the simple reason that the PDP Presidential candidate has been flying in and out of Nigeria without ever receiving such a treatment until the APC released its statement.
“This event raises grave concerns about using government services for purely political purposes and what this portends for the conduct of free and fair elections in February 2019, and shows as hollow President Buhari’s promise to superintendent over credible polls.
“The Atiku Presidential Campaign Organisation wishes to remind Nigerians and the international community that by Nigeria’s constitution, only the President can order the deployment of military and paramilitary personnel as Commander-in-Chief.
“That, combined with the statement released last week, is proof beyond reasonable doubt that what happened to Atiku Abubakar was not a routine exercise, but a deliberate attempt to intimidate him by those who have seen the political handwriting on the wall.”