By Blessing Otobong-Gabriel
Member of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Presidential Campaign Council for Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Jesutega Onokpasa said a former governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello and his Kaduna State counterpart, Nasir el-Rufai would have calmed the violent demonstration in the northern part of the country if they were not being persecuted and inundated with unsubstantiated charges.
Onokpasa said the former governors, in their characteristic manner, would have taken up the task of speaking up for President Bola Tinubu, calmed frayed nerves and ensure that peace reigns in the region.
The APC chieftain made this known in a video clip while lambasting appointees of President Tinubu who are from the north for failing to take any action in defending his government and ensuring sanity among participants of the nationwide protest.
According to the lawyer, many appointees of President Tinubu, especially those from the north, do not really love him and neither do they support his government
He added that all they did was to paint Bello and el-Rufai black by cooking up unfounded rumour that the former governors and the Minister of State for Defence, Bello Matawalle, were sponsoring the nationwide protest and that they were behind the display of Russian flags by some northern protesters.
Dismissing the allegations by one Jackson Ude that the former governors, conniving with Matawalle and the Chief Personal Security Officer to President Tinubu, were behind calls for military coup by the protesters, Onokpasa expressed disappointment that some idle appointees of Tinubu and APC loyalists had been parroting the rumour even when they were supposed to be synergising on how to restore normalcy in the country in the wake of the nationwide protest.
He chieftain described Bello and el-Rufai as true BATists who contributed immensely to the emergence of President Tinubu, maintaining that if the duo were not encumbered with politically motivated issues, they would have risen to the violent demonstration in the north, restored calm and assured them of the good intentions of President Tinubu.
Calling on APC supporters and appointees of the Federal Government to maintain caution over unfounded speculations and hearsays that might further divide the ruling party, Onokpasa stressed that Bello, El-Rufai, Matawalle and others mentioned in the alleged plot against Tinubu were known strong supporters of Tinubu who assiduously supported him to electoral victory and still work for his success.
“Those of you in our party listening to this ‘dem say, dem say crap’ saying our brothers (Yahaya Bello and Nasir El-Rufai) are planning against Asiwaju. The people that Jackson Udeh mentioned – Yahaya Bello, Nasir el-Rufai, Bello Matawalle – these are the people that were very very close to former President Muhammadu Buhari. They were the three people that sued him (Buhari) over naira scarcity and redesign that Emefiele did to make us lose election. They are the ones who sued (Buhari) in support of President Tinubu. They were critical to us winning election.
“Then, an Obedient mentions them, without no evidence, he says they are responsible (for nationwide protest), Yahaya Bello of all people, Nasir el-Rufai. These idiots are trying to divide us and some of us Batists, some of us APC supporters, some of us in Asiwaju government are so stupid, so idiotic as to allow them to divide us. We are falling apart like this. How many of us are there? How many of us won this election? We won election not because we are spectacular, we won election because God wanted Asiwaju to be President. We won by the lowest margin since 1999. I am a Catholic and it is so clear to me that God made Asiwaju President despite all the odds and these people (Bello, El-Rufai, Matawalle) they are mentioning were crucial in us winning that election,” he said.
Onokpasa warned against pull-him-down down syndrome in APC, lamenting that the party was gradually falling apart. He called on all genuine Batists and supporters of APC to desist from persecuting and painting Yahaya Bello and Nasir el-Rufai bad, saying no amount of their evil ploys against the duo would take away their huge commitments in the presidency of Tinubu.
He also knocked some appointees of President Tinubu who had been silent on the nationwide protest, especially in the north, saying, “Those we have in critical appointments in government, what have they been saying? Have you heard from them? I am asking you my fellow APC members. How they even got across to a notorious Obedient like Jackson Ude, an anti-Tinubu character like that, in the midst of this nationwide protest when we should be synergizing and support our President, we are further tearing ourselves apart?
“Yahaya Bello and El-Rufai did not see anything to do, it is to be sharing flags? Shame on all of you, crazy people in this party. May God uproot all of you from our midst; you are not Batists; you are not Progressives, you don’t love Asiwaju, you don’t love President Tinubu. God will remove you. God will separate all of you from our President.”
