Presidential Candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, has been identified as conniving with petroleum marketers to worsen fuel scarcity in the country and boost his popularity ahead of the February presidential elections. This is as two sources in his campaign council also revealed that the scarcity was also affecting their family members.
According to the first source, “Atiku has promised the oil marketers oil blocks and other rewards if they can simply hoard the fuel or smuggle it to neighbouring countries to sell at unregulated prices. The problem is that it is affecting even me and my family members and at this stage, I don’t know if the plan is still succeeding because everyone can see that it is all a plot.”
He added that there was enough fuel being lifted at the ports and depots to service the country but that powerful sources within the presidency and the PDP were working in cahoots and had already instructed the marketers to either hike the prices or do whatever they wanted to make it scarce, despite PENGASSAN’s threats to clamp down on them.
The second source, who is an aide in the accounting unit, also disclosed that Atiku’s plan was simply to make people so angry with the APC-led government that they would do everything possible to vote the party out. He noted that the plan was working perfectly because he believes anger is mounting against the APC. He, however, admitted that the plan was causing Nigerians untold hardships, concluding that politics is a dirty game.
Atiku’s actions, widely condemned as unpatriotic and deeply hurtful to the public, form part of his desperate bid to win the Feb 25 conquest after internal division within his party further diminished his chances.
This week, it became clear that he has lost the support of several influential governors elected on the PDP platform, including Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State, Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, and other governors from the eastern region where he desperately needs vote numbers to even stand a chance.
All the governors, minus a few exceptions, have pledged their support for Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the APC. Their support, which affirms the broad acceptance of the former Lagos governor, opens a path to a decisive victory for the APC candidate.