President Muhammadu Buhari has been urged to probe the $460,000 forfeiture allegation against the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Bola Tinubu before joining his campaign billed to flag off in Jos, Plateau state.
The flag-off of the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential campaign is scheduled to commence on Tuesday in Jos, Plateau State.
President Buhari is expected to grace the Jos rally and lead the campaign for the ruling party’s candidate.
However, Atiku Abubakar/Ifeanyi Okowa Campaign on Monday advised Buhari to stay away from the campaign, noting that the allegations of narcotic involvement, if proven to be true in the end, would mar the President’s lean integrity rating left.
The spokesman of the campaign organisation, Kola Ologbondiyan, in statement on Monday stressed that the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, who is also the spokesman of the APC Presidential Campaign, had admitted that there was a forfeiture of money by Tinubu even though he linked it to tax issues.
Ologbondiyan explained that whether the forfeiture was linked to drugs or tax, there was no doubt money was taken from Tinubu’s account.
“There are suggestions in public space that President Muhammadu Buhari should distance himself from the candidate of their party on the ground that it can rubbish whatever integrity is left of President Muhammadu Buhari.
“So, the natural expectation is that the government of President Buhari can go and even investigate the allegation against Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the sense that a serving minister in the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari who is also the spokesperson of the campaign organization of Bola Tinubu had already admitted the fact that there was forfeiture. But he said it was taxation.
“So, whichever way you look at it, money believed to belong to Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu was taken out of his account, a whopping sum of $460,000. There’s no argument of any sort.
“And as we speak now, there are also reports in public space Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu claimed to have worked in Deloitte. But there are reports now that Deloitte has denied the fact that he ever worked with them.
“So, I believe that all this needs to be investigated by President Muhammadu Buhari before he begins to go around to present Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as a candidate.
“Because if at the end of the day he doesn’t carry out a proper investigation and all the issues that are in public space come out to be real, how is he going to run away from it? Or how is he going to run away from them?”
The Atiku/Okowa Presidential Campaign Organisation warned that with just a few months left in his tenure, President Buhari should not allow himself to be dragged into any drug controversy.
“You don’t expect a President Buhari who was elected into office on account of his integrity to go and support a candidate who is being alleged to have forfeited money to the United States government on grounds of the alleged link to drug issues.
“You don’t expect a president who is leaving office, who has how many months to leave the office to be dragged into a drug cartel. These issues of the drug cartel, these are implications that might arise,” the campaign organisation declared.