"If he visited yesterday or tomorrow, it doesn't matter. What made him not go for 12 years points to the fact that something that has to do with corruption. The cases are there in the US If the US decides to pursue it or not, that is not our problem, but the facts are there that corroborate the fact we already know. If a thief is walking freely on the street, it does not make him not a thief anymore," he stated.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) says Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), returned to the country like a "fugitive".
Mallam Lanre Isaa-Onilu, the APC National Publicity Secretary, stated this on Sunday in Abuja while addressing a press conference.
According to Issa-Onilu, Atiku hurriedly left the United States of America (USA) and "landed like a fugitive and refused to address any international media". He added that the cases against Atiku are in the open should the US government chose to puruse.
"If he visited yesterday or tomorrow, it doesn't matter. What made him not go for 12 years points to the fact that something that has to do with corruption. The cases are there in the US If the US decides to pursue it or not, that is not our problem, but the facts are there that corroborate the fact we already know. If a thief is walking freely on the street, it does not make him not a thief anymore," he stated.
Onilu also criticised Atiku for walking out of the presidential debate organised by the Nigeria Elections Debate Group (NEDG) and the Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria (BON), which held on Saturday night, stating that the former vice-president "has nothing to offer". [story_link align="left"]66361[/story_link]
He stressed that Atiku cannot be trusted, particularly with his statement that he would sell off the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to his friends.
Urging Nigerians "not to take him seriously", the APC spokesman said Atiku would "compromise the system to favour himself and his friends if voted into power".
In his response to the allegation by former President Olusegun Obasanjo that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) plans to rig the election in favour of President Muhammadu Buhari, Onilu said: "Obasanjo is being haunted by his past and it is high time he adjusted to the reality of the imminent defeat that is starring him in the face".
Denying the accusation on rigging the election, he noted that it is time for Obasanjo to "smell the coffee and wake up from his slumber".
"This election will come and it will be free and fair. APC has no reason to rig it. You have seen all the rallies we have done. The same party PDP that said our president is going to campaign by proxy, is the party that is showing concern nobody needs from them that our president is doing too much in terms of the rallies he has been attending," he added.
He asked Obasanjo to adjust himself to the reality that after February 16, "he would realise that he is not God".