The All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate for president, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has established a parallel army (the Jagaban Army), and the Atiku/Okowa Campaign Organization has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to protect the integrity of the Nigerian military and the sovereignty of the country by calling a meeting of the National Security Council.
The campaign stated that Nigerians are worried that the APC and its presidential candidate will use a parallel army, code-named the Jagaban Army, to undermine national security, insult the Nigerian Army, cause confusion, disrupt the 2023 elections, and derail the election. This concern was raised by the public outcry over the APC’s and its presidential candidate’s exposed plan.
The campaign, in statement by its spokesperson, Kola Ologbondiyan said, “this is even more worrisome in the face of undenied allegations in the public space that the Jagaban Army is training and arming thugs with dangerous weapons in secret locations across the country ostensibly to use the illegal formation to undermine Nigerian security forces and unleash mayhem on Nigerians during the elections.
“Nigerians have been wondering how a political party or any candidate for that matter can create a parallel Army and adorned them with uniforms as well as ranks within a sovereign State as if Nigeria has become Asiwaju Tinubu’s fiefdom.
“Furthermore, Nigerians are alarmed that the APC Presidential Candidate went to London to declare war on our nation by openly charging his party cohorts to take power at all costs, only for him to return to the country to have his campaign set up a parallel Army to undermine our national security in order to achieve his malevolent designs.”
The campaign said that the expectation of Nigerians was that after Asiwaju Tinubu declared that “political power is not served in a restaurant, it is not served a la carte. It is what we are doing; It is being determined; you do it at all cost; fight for it, grab it, snatch it and run (away) with it,” the security authorities ought to have immediately taken him in for questioning for treasonable felony.
The campaign said that this is not the first time Tinubu has come out brazenly to undermine the sovereignty of the nation as well as the office and the person of President Muhammadu Buhari.
“Nigerians can recall how Asiwaju Tinubu went to the Presidential villa, undermine President Buhari by using the Presidential facility in the Seat of Power to announce his presidential interest. That, to say the least, was felonious.
“Nigerians are also aware of how the APC Presidential Candidate has arrogantly continued to disrespect, disparage and undermine the person of the President and how he had publicly mocked and depicted President Buhari as weak and weeping over losses in presidential elections until, according to him, he (Tinubu) came to his rescue and made him (Buhari) President.
‘The import is that Asiwaju Tinubu, in his arrogance, believes that he cannot be subjected to President Buhari’s Constitutional powers and this accounts for his temerity to run a parallel Army; a treasonable act against the Office of the President and our national sovereignty,” the campaign said.
The campaign said it is clear that Asiwaju Tinubu is desperate to be President, but with manifest signs of rejection by Nigerians, he is ready to cause bloodletting and destroy the democratic process.
“It is imperative to state that insurrectionary groups that unleashed mayhem and derailed democracy in many parts of the world all started with desperate power seekers who cannot gain office through democratic means.
“The fear across our country is that the APC Presidential Candidate is apparently following this dangerous path.
“We implore Asiwaju Tinubu to come to terms with the reality that Nigerians have made up their minds to elect the PDP Presidential Candidate, Atiku Abubakar, as the next President of Nigeria, come February 25,” it said.
The campaign, has, however, demanded that President Buhari should stamp his feet of authority and check Asiwaju Tinubu from sinking the nation into an abyss.
