A political group, Global Initiatives for Good Governance (GIGG), has demanded an immediate retractions from the immediate-past National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Kola Ologbodiyan and a chieftain of the party, Chief Olabode George over alleged verbal attack on the presidential candidate of the party in the 2023 general election, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.
In the event of failure to offer the apology, the group threatened to drag both Ologbodiyan and the former national vice-chairman, southwest of the PDP, Chief George before the court.
Director-General of the initiative, Dr Emeka Kalu, made the demand in a press statement made available to LEADERSHIP, on Tuesday.
Dr. Kalu, however, described those attacking the former Vice President of Nigeria as traducers and political detractors.
Kalu specifically accused Ologbodiyan and Chief George of peddling unsubstantiated lies against Atiku.
He also described the prophesy of Primate Elijah Ayodele of the INRI Evangelical Spiritual Church, who predicted that PDP would lose the 2027 presidential election with Atiku as its flagbearer, as a sentiment-driven and unfounded prophecy.
He insisted that the degree of political antagonism, strife, hatred, mudslinging and media attacks was the handiwork of political opponents without good intentions for the country.
Kalu stressed that Atiku’s presidency in 2027 would heal the nation of the numerous injuries the All Progressives Party (APC) had thrown the nation into in the last five years, especially in the last one year of President Bola Tinubu’s administration.
“Holistically, it is defamatory to be meaninglessly antagonising a respected national leader whose antecedents have ever remained befitting, especially in touching the lives of the masses.
“As a sagacious and resilient leader, Atiku Abubakar has been intentional in re-jiging the collapsing socio-political economic structures of the nation when elected the next president and it remains one of his continued points of National Transformation Agenda towards healing the wounds of APC’s lopsided governance in the country.
“So saddening that those who fed from the political pot of Waziri Adamawa to become relevant in the political society have chosen to denigrate his personality simply to please Atiku’s enemies.
“A former and the immediate National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, Kola Ologbodian got the impetus to have addressed Atiku as ‘a man of deceit who is ready to sacrifice his entire family to become the President in order to loot Nigeria wealth to manure his Dubai investments.’ What a treachery! In the same vein, Chief Olabode George recently cited that the PDP lost the 2023 Presidential election because Atiku was the candidate.”
He also queried how Atiku’s candidacy in the 2023 presidential election denied PDP of victory despite the obvious electoral malpractices, which marred the polls.
The GIGG Director-General, declared that the attacks on the personality of Atiku amounted to a hatchet job, crookedly organised and a ploy to weaken the political platform of the former Vice President.
He pointed out that the current economic conundrum could only be upturned through Atiku’s Presidency, adding that he remained the only seasoned national leader with the audacity to return Nigeria to the forefront of infrastructural development and national security, considering his wealth of experience in public administration and politics.
Kalu further demanded an urgent retraction of the statements against Atiku from Ologbodiyan and George, warning that failure to do this may lead to legal action taken against the duo.
“I hereby demand that this misguided, badly conceived and politically motivated character destruction is henceforth retracted, else our legal department would not hesitate to sue the defaulters on personality assassination, misrepresentation of facts and defamation of character.
“In conclusion, I hereby sternly warn that Atiku Abubakar be addressed with honour and his reputations must not be ruined nor debased,” he said. (Leadership)