By Gideon Njoku
The messy campaign between the Presidential Candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Atiku Abubakar and that of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Bola Tinubu, descended to a new low on Saturday, January 21, 2023, when the Director Media and Publicity of the Presidential Campaign Council of the PDP, Senator Dino Melaye, invited the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, to investigate the APC Candidate.
This call, he said, will be followed by an official petition to the anti-drug Agency.
In a video he made and posted on WhatsApp, Melaye invited the NDLEA, to search all Tinubu’s houses for prohibited drugs, including cocaine, and thereafter, invite the APC Candidate for a physical test on the use of drugs.
Melaye said his call is patriotic as anybody aspiring to be the President of the Country must be drug-free.
Both Candidates, through their Spokespersons have been hitting and slandering each other in the past couple of weeks.
But the antenna was raised a few days ago when the APC PCC Director of Public Affairs, Festus Keyamo, SAN, addressed a Press Conference, and wrote a petition to the Police, the Department of State Services and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, against Atiku, and asked them to arrest the Presidential candidate of the PDP for investigation and prosecution over alleged monumental corruption he got involved in while he was Nigeria’s Vice President under the President Olusegun Obasanjo Government.
Keyamo relied on a whistleblower, a former Atiku Aide, who left nothing to the imagination when he spilled the beans on Atiku and Obasanjo.
Keyamo said he gave them a maximum of 72 hours to do arrest Atiku, or he would proceed to Court to file a suit against Atiku. He has done so already.
On Saturday, as if on a return match, Melaye posted his video where he called on the Chairman of the NDLEA, Brigadier-General Buba Marwa, to cause a search on all Tinubu’s houses, and invite him for a physical test on the use of narcotics. To show he was not particular on Tinubu alone, he extended the same invitation to the NDLEA against his own Principal, Atiku.
Melaye’s video post reads:
“This morning, I am making a clarion call on Major General Buba Marwa, the Chairman of NDLEA, to please, in the interest of this Country, search the residence of Bola Ahmed Tinubu to search for cannabis, cocaine and other narcotics drugs, please.
“And then conduct a narcotic test, conduct a narcotic test on Bola Ahmed Tinubu because for you to be the President of this country, you must be drug free, you must be mentally and physically fit.
“Bola Ahmed Tinubu is not physically fit, he is not mentally fit, and I want the NDLEA to conduct a test, a drug test on Bola Ahmed Tinubu and also, search the premises of all his houses in search of narcotics drugs because we cannot have an Escobar, I mean , it will be dangerous for Nigeria to have an Escober as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“This will be followed up with official petition to NDLEA to search the premises, all the premises of Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and also conduct a narcotic test on him.
“And, my Principal, the Presidential Candidate of the PDP, Atiku Abubakar, is also open to the same treatment.
“God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
The Presidential election is scheduled for February 25, 2023.
