Presidential candidate of the African emocratic Congress (ADC), Atiku Abubakar, has dismissed the latest allegations by a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr. Babachir Lawal, describing them as an unfortunate cocktail of bitterness, conjecture, and political revisionism masquerading as public interest.
But Lawal, has insisted that Atiku did little to secure the ADC presidential ticket, declaring that a former governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi was more prepared for the office of the president and the party’s ticket than the former vice-president.
In a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku said Nigerians, who watched Lawal’s recent television interview were confronted with a curious spectacle of a man armed with outrage but bereft of evidence; rich in allegations but poor in facts.
He noted that what was presented as a serious political intervention ultimately collapsed into an extended exercise in speculation and unsubstantiated claims.
“Mr. Lawal spent nearly an hour making grave accusations about the conduct of the ADC presidential primary. Yet, he failed to produce a single piece of verifiable evidence. No document. No petition. No result sheet.
“No witness statement. No recording. Nothing. For a man, who repeatedly insisted that proof was ‘everywhere,’ his performance was a masterclass in making extraordinary allegations without meeting the elementary obligation of substantiating them.
“He arrived with accusations. He left with accusations. In between, the evidence never arrived.
“Ordinarily, one would expect a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation and former National Vice Chairman of a political party to understand the elementary distinction between evidence and suspicion.
“Instead, Nigerians were treated to stories about unnamed callers, unnamed officials, unnamed witnesses, and unnamed conspirators. By the time the interview ended, the only thing in abundance was speculation.
‘’One would have expected a higher regard for evidence from a man, who once vigorously resisted being judged by mere allegations. Having demanded fairness for himself, Mr. Lawal should understand that accusations without proof are nothing more than prejudice dressed up as argument
“What the interview ultimately revealed was not a whistleblower exposing wrongdoing but a disappointed political actor struggling to come to terms with the failure of his preferred candidate.
“By his own admission, Mr. Lawal openly aligned himself with another aspirant long before the conclusion of the process. He campaigned for that candidate, promoted that candidate, and publicly believed that candidate should emerge victorious.
“Having failed in that objective, he now seeks to dress personal disappointment in the borrowed robes of moral outrage. Perhaps the most laughable contradiction in Mr. Lawal’s performance was his attempt to portray Atiku Abubakar as both politically irrelevant and politically omnipotent at the same time.”
In his response, Lawal said he and other party members had expected a keen contest among the leading aspirants and were particularly impressed by the efforts of Amaechi.
According to him, “Someone like Rotimi Amaechi was very confident that if we go to primaries he would win. Everybody around him was extremely confident that Amaechi would win.
“And for me, who has been in this process, I was watching the indices to see where his confidence was coming from. Among the three candidates, he was the one moving around, working hard to see that he got the ticket.”
Lawal contrasted Amaechi’s activities with what he described as Atiku’s low-profile approach to the contest.
“Then, we have Atiku Abubakar. That time we used to wonder what is he going to do to win the primary because he was practically not doing much. He was not talking, he was not campaigning, he wasn’t going out.
“We were wondering how was he going to do it? So, we were watching how it was going to be done.”
Chuks Okocha
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