Newscenter Media News The National Chairman of the Inter-Party Advisory Council, IPAC, Yusuf Dantalle has demanded that former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, should identify and name leaders of the opposition collecting N50 million from the President Bola Tinubu administration.
He said failure to do this, the former VP should immediately apologize to opposition leaders over claims that they are taking funds from the ruling party.
DAILY POST reported that Atiku had recently claimed that the Tinubu Government is paying some opposition members/leaders N50m to destabilise the opposition parties.
Dantalle, who was a guest on Friday’s edition of Channels Television’s Politics Today, asked Atiku to apologise to the opposition leaders over the bribery claims.
“You have to be careful what you say so that you don’t unnecessarily hit up the polity.
“Yes, you have your information as Atiku Abubakar, but that is not enough for you to come out and say that all oppositions, or all members of the opposition family, are collecting N50 million,” he said.
“As far as I know, my party the Allied People’s Movement and today, I am managing the Secretariat of the umbrella body of all the political parties in Nigeria, there is no national chairman, no leader anywhere collecting any money that I know.
“If you are coming out to say, okay, fine, so, so and so are collecting the money, to give a lead to what you are saying, it is different.
“You have succeeded in creating mutual suspicion. So what I think Atiku Abubakar should do, with all due respect, is to either apologize publicly to opposition leaders in totality, the same way he made this allegation, or he identify and mention opposition leaders who are involved in this rubbish.
“But for us in the Inter Party, Advisory Council, we are not aware of what Atiku is insinuating. Sincerely.
“Everything and anything is possible in politics. But what I’m saying, I’m restricting this to the Inter Party Advisory Council, that’s the 19 registered political parties that I know today, there is no such sign that anybody has collected N50m.
“I’ve Been speaking with the leaders of all the other opposition parties. I’ve spoken to the national chairman of SDP, I’ve spoken to national chairman of YPP, I’ve spoken to national chairman of PRP, national chairman of AA, national chairman of NRM and everybody seemed to be angry.
“It came to a point when I was not talking and it seemed as if I was involved in some of these things. It is embarrassing. And sincerely, we need an apology from the former Vice President or he should come out to identify and mention the people involved.
“In this situation, he claimed that ‘some opposition leaders’, it is possible that some persons want to get money from Atiku and they went to him and say ‘okay, this is what this person is giving us, so you can give us something like that’.
“It will be fair to all of us in the opposition family that you mention or identify the people who are involved in this, because I don’t know who is giving such money, and I don’t know who is collecting it.
“I’m saying this between me and God. This is capable of hitting up the polity unnecessarily. So as an elder statesman and as a leader, you are not supposed to make this kind of utterance, because you are hitting up the polity unnecessarily.
“He will be helping us if he identifies these persons, even if he doesn’t want to mention directly, he can use a proxy to mention the people involved, or the parties or the leaders involved in this thing,” he stated.
The All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, had earlier asked Abubakar to provide evidence backing his claims that the APC bribes opposition parties with N50m.
Alleged APC’s N50m to opposition: Name collectors or apologize now – IPAC to Atiku