Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has accused the Presidency of “reckless distortion of facts” after it claimed he remained silent following the rescue of abducted pupils and teachers in Oriire, Oyo State.
In a statement on Saturday issued through his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku said there were only two explanations for the Presidency’s accusation: “either its media handlers were too lazy to acquaint themselves with publicly available facts before rushing to attack the opposition, or they were too embarrassed by the substance of his statement to acknowledge its existence.”
The row follows comments by presidential aide Bayo Onanuga, who said Atiku had not acknowledged the rescue nearly 18 hours after the victims regained freedom, despite criticizing the federal government while they were in captivity.
Atiku rejected Onanuga’s claim, insisting he had issued a “comprehensive press statement” earlier Saturday titled ‘A Nation at War Needs a Commander-in-Chief, Not a Campaigner-in-Chief’.
“It is astonishing that a Presidency with limitless public resources could accuse someone of silence without carrying out the most basic verification,” Atiku said. “Either they failed to read our statement because they were too lazy to do so, or they deliberately ignored it because it exposed uncomfortable truths about their misplaced priorities.”
According to Atiku, the statement welcomed the rescue, commended the Armed Forces and other security agencies for their gallantry, and urged sustained efforts to free every Nigerian still in captivity.
“For the benefit of Nigerians and to expose the falsehood being circulated by the Presidency, we reproduce below the relevant portions of that statement,” he said, adding that the excerpts “expose the Presidency’s allegation as entirely false.”
“The facts are now before Nigerians. We did not only congratulate the security agencies, we praised their courage, professionalism and sacrifice in unmistakable terms,” Atiku stated. “What we declined to do was to applaud a Commander-in-Chief who, at a defining moment of national importance, remained publicly preoccupied with partisan political activities instead of personally leading the nation in celebrating the success of our troops and reassuring families whose loved ones remain in captivity.”
Atiku said no propaganda could erase questions raised in his earlier statement.
“The rescue of the Oyo schoolchildren brought joy to the nation, but Nigerians are still asking: when will the children abducted in Borno and other innocent citizens across the country also regain their freedom? Those questions remain unanswered,” he said.
He urged the Presidency to focus on insecurity rather than “manufacturing controversies” around opposition statements.
“A government secure in its performance does not invent silence where there was a documented public statement. It responds to legitimate concerns with facts and results, not propaganda,” Atiku said.
“Nigerians deserve a Presidency focused on rescuing every citizen still in captivity rather than one preoccupied with monitoring and misrepresenting the opposition.”