The intrigues trailing the race for the presidency assumed a dangerous twist, yesterday, as the presidential candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu; and his Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, counterpart, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, called for the arrest and disqualification of each other over allegations of graft.

Tinubu threw the first punch when he asked security agencies in the country to invite, arrest, interrogate and prosecute Alhaji Atiku Abubakar over what he described as #AtikuGate.

Citing a video clip made by one Michael Achimugu, said to be a former aide of the PDP standard bearer, Tinubu said Atiku as vice president between 1999 and 2007, colluded with his then boss, President Olusegun Obasanjo, to operate an illegal account tagged, “Special Purpose Vehicles” SPVs.

He accused the PDP-led administration between 1999 and 2007 of running a criminal enterprise, describing the era as the “SPV Years.”

Responding in kind, Atiku and the PDP described Tinubu as a convict, who should not be in the presidential race, adding that Tinubu’s alleged $460,000 drug money forfeiture was evidence of a crime.

Tinubu’s attack

Minister of State, Labour and Employment; and Chief Spokesman of the APC Presidential Campaign Council PCC, Mr Festus Keyamo, SAN, had forwarded a petition to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission EFCC, the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission, ICPC and the Code of Conduct Bureau, CCB, seeking arrest and prosecution of Atiku.

In the petition filed as a “Concerned Nigerian”, Keyamo gave a 72-hour ultimatum to the anti-graft agencies to “arrest/invite, interrogate and prosecute one Alhaji Atiku Abubakar”, failing which he said he would approach the courts to compel the agencies to act.

Noting that Atiku does not enjoy immunity simply because he is a presidential candidate, the APC candidate asked the former vice president to apologize and renounce his ambition.

He, however, said he would, in the coming days, approach the courts to seek Atiku’s disqualification from the presidential race.

According to him, Atiku is not God and does not enjoy immunity from criminal prosecution, and urged security agencies not to be reluctant in arresting him simply because he is vying for president.

He said former Plateau State governor, Joshua Dariye, was jailed for the offenses of paying state money into a company, Marine Float, linked to Atiku, insisting that the former vice-president must be arrested.

Tinubu spoke in Abuja at the PCC headquarters in Abuja yesterday through the full complement of his media directorate.

While the text of a prepared speech was read by Keyamo, he was flanked by the Special Adviser, Media, Communications and Public Affairs at the PCC, Mr. Dele Alake; Director, Media and Publicity, Mr. Bayo Onanuga; Director, Special Media Projects/New Media, Mr. Femi Fani-Kayode; and, Director, Strategic Communications, Alhaji Idris Mohammed.

The PCC queried the sources of wealth of both Obasanjo and Atiku, especially with regards to building their individual private universities.

On whether former President Obasanjo should equally be arrested, the PCC said the onus was on the security agencies to open investigations into the issue and arrest anyone found wanting, no matter how highly placed.

Funny