Drug Issues: PDP tells INEC to stop Tinubu from contesting

• PDP is insisting INEC must drop Tinubu from contesting over drug indictment from the US
• The party urged Tinubu to reveal his knowledge of the situation to the public rather than continuing to deny and place the blame for his alleged involvement in drug trafficking on others.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leadership announced yesterday that it was looking into legal options to force the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to uphold the decision of a US court in Illinois, Chicago, indicting Bola Tinubu, the presidential candidate for the All Progressives Congress (APC), for drug-related offenses.

At a press conference in Abuja, Debo Ologunagba, the PDP’s national publicity secretary, emphasized that “all options are on the table as we have done before.”

The PDP claims that because Tinubu has been charged with drug-related offenses and Nigeria is a signatory to international agreements against the use of drugs and money laundering, Tinubu is ineligible to run for president in the upcoming election under Section 137 of the 1999 Constitution.

Similar to this, the Atiku/Okowa campaign group has urged Tinubu to stop denying and blaming others for his alleged involvement in drug trafficking and instead inform the public of his knowledge of the situation.

In contrast, the APC’s Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) characterized Tinubu as unstoppable before the 2018 elections. It urged the PDP to file a lawsuit if it had strong feelings about the matter.

This comes as the PDP’s candidate for president, Atiku Abubakar, has urged Nigerians to band together and free their country from the APC because the people should hold the reins of power.

To force INEC to take the necessary action, as the PDP did in the cases of Ekiti and Osun states, the party said it was considering all options, including legal action. PDP had contested the governorship conventions and primaries held by Governor Mai Mala Buni-led APC Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee in those two instances (CECPC).

At a press conference, Ologunagba asserted that Tinubu was involved in the drug-related conviction because assets would not have been forfeited if he had not been an accessory to the offense.

The PDP urged INEC to “remain focused and carry out its duties in accordance with the constitution and the Electoral Act so as to engender confidence in the citizens with respect to the integrity of those seeking public office in our country” rather than “succumb to the blackmail of the APC.”

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According to the PDP national publicity secretary, “Our party has remained undeterred in the bid to rescue our country from the suffocating misrule of the All Progressives Congress (APC), as witnessed in our presidential campaign rallies in Kaduna and Borno states, despite the unrelenting attacks by the APC.

“However, as we prepare for the 2023 general election, the APC is busy scheming to create tension, induce violence, frustrate the conduct of the 2023 general election and derail our democratic process, having realized that it does not have an eligible presidential candidate for the polls.

“It is no longer news that the presidential candidate of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is irredeemably and hopelessly ineligible to contest the February 2023 presidential election, having been reportedly indicted and subjected to criminal forfeiture judgment for a narcotic-related offense by a United States court in Northern Illinois.

“Nigerians are, however, appalled by the lame attempt by the APC presidential campaign, which after admitting that there was a $460,000 drug money criminal forfeiture judgment against accounts traced to Tinubu, is now desperately trying to pull a wool over the eyes of the Nigerian people and our democratic institutions.

“Seeing that it is technically out of the presidential contest and further distraught because it cannot also field candidates at all levels in the 2023 general election due to its illegal and unconstitutional congresses, the APC has resorted to unleashing hoodlums to attack PDP presidential campaign rallies and other innocent Nigerians going about their legitimate endeavors, as witnessed in Kaduna and Borno states, in a bid to trigger a crisis and scuttle the elections.”

Meanwhile, Ibrahim Attahiru has resigned from his position as Special Advisor on Sports and Youth Development to Kwara State Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq.

In a letter to the governor on Sunday, Attahiru informed him of this and stated the personal reasons for his resignation.

”Your Excellency sir, my resignation is due to personal reasons.