President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has indirectly admitted that he and the ruling party are behind the leadership structure problems of opposition parties when he told Senator President Godswil Akpabio that he will send him to the ‘other side to scatter them”.
While the audience laughed it off as a joke, the president’s remarks reflect the growing accusation of the opposition parties, especially ADC, that the ruling party has been sponsoring internal elements in the opposition.
President Tinubu made these remarks when he made a speech at the inauguration of the Nigeria Revenue Service, NRS, headquarters in Abuja on Tuesday, as monitored by ENigeria Newspaper.
Tinubu said, “Senate President, I will send you to the other side to represent me. And then you can scatter them to any way you want”, as he wrapped up his speech.
“They’re confused!”, he added.
“God bless Nigeria, God bless Federal Republic of Nigeria and the tax collectors”, Tinubu said, ending his speech.
Senator Akpabio, meanwhile, said in his speech that the recent spike in insecurity in Nigeria is politically motivated and connected to the general elections in 2027.
He said, “You’re seeing insecurity today, and it’s even increasing because the election is coming. As soon as election is over, for the first two weeks you will not hear a single bomb blast because people are sponsoring it to distract you, and they don’t know what else to do, and they say this man is too good in many areas.”
He dismissed allegations of electoral bias and brought up the scandal regarding an X account purportedly run by INEC chairman Joash Amupitan.
“If the governors are attracted to him because he’s taking good care of the states. He came in with 18 governors, and today he has almost 32 governors under his fold out of 36. So, where do we belong?
“How do you win an election when you don’t have a structure? No political party is stable again in this country. Then they change and attack the people going to do the election. Then they brought out a tweet where the INEC chairman said, ‘Victory is sure,’ but he didn’t say victory is sure for APC or PDP. But the man said it’s manipulated and nobody wants to hear.
“For me, whether manipulated or not, he said victory is sure. He was not chairman of INEC then; he was just a lecturer, and anybody can support whoever he wishes to.”
The opposition party has gone ahead with its convention despite INEC’s order and accusations pointed at Tinubu for instigation a division in the party.
