Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has accused an aide of Dr. Doyin Okupe, the Senior Special Assistant to President Goodluck Jonathan on Public Affairs, of posting material online aimed at causing disaffection among members of the All Progressives Congress, APC.
A press statement sponsored by Atiku’s media office in Abuja yesterday specifically accused the aide, who was identified as Churchill Umoren, of planting a report in the social media purporting that the former vice president has sealed a deal with leader of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, ceding the party’s presidential ticket to him.
The statement described the report as untrue, adding that “nothing can be further from the truth”. It further stated “that [the] libelous and malicious report has since found its way on one of the online newspapers linked to Mr. Umoren”.
The former number two man’s media office said following media inquiries, it found out that the said publication is the handiwork of Mr. Okupe himself, who it alleged was acting out the script of his paymaster.
Consequently, the statement clarified that Atiku did not “seal any deal with Tinubu; asked for no concession from the promoters of the APC and got none in return”.
The former vice president, who last month defected to the APC, said that the libelous and malicious publication is meant to cause disaffection between him, Tinubu, General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) and other leading lights of the opposition party.
He, therefore, enjoined Nigerians to disregard the report as it is only a figment of the imagination of hatchet staff linked to Okupe’s office in the presidency.