APC accuses Atiku’s aide of spreading fake news, denies return of fuel subsidy

The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has attacked a media aide to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, Phrank Shaibu over his allegation that President Bola Tinubu has re-introduced fuel subsidy through the back door.

While denying the allegation, the APC said the government only intervened to ensure some measure of price stability and predictability.

Shaibu’s had stated in reports that the Tinubu administration spent N169.4 in August to keep the fuel pump price at N620.

However, in a statement on Monday night, Felix Morka, the APC National Publicity Secretary, said such payments do not amount to a reintroduction of subsidy, accusing Shaibu of spreading “fake news” and engaging in “other inanities” just to discredit President Bola Tinubu’s administration.

“Shaibu’s claim that fuel subsidy is back is not correct. Government’s intervention to ensure some measure of price stability and predictability does not amount to return of the ruinous fuel subsidy of recent past”, APC stated.

Morka, in the statement, also said Shaibu “in an unfledged statement…outed himself in his warped and misleading suggestion that the APC-led Administration was hoodwinking Nigerians by propaganda”.

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He further stated that Shaibu, in his “pathological and cynical flippancy”, delved into matters he clearly does not understand or lacks the constitutive capacity to understand as a result of post-electoral traumatic stress disorder (PeTSD) arising from his boss’ serial electoral failure.

The statement read in part: “Unsurprisingly, Shaibu’s only ‘evidence’ for such an arrant conclusion is that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has appointed more media aides than economic and security advisers, conveniently glossing over the fact that Mr. President was swift in rejigging the security architecture and repositioning the Armed Forces for optimal performance in defence of lives and property.

“Certainly, he does not understand the issues and the interplay of statecraft and economic management initiatives by President Tinubu to remove age-old distortions and contradictions, accelerate and solidify all round recovery and prosperity for our country.

“That Shaibu described as ‘lies’, the administration’s courageous decisions to remove fuel subsidy, harmonize the foreign exchange regimes and sign into law the Students’ Loan Act, only buttresses his poor understanding of economic development and governance. That the fine details of these visionary and people-centred policies are still being worked out and have yet to run their due course cannot and do not negate their valid objectives and potential transformative impact. The President has dutifully appointed experienced and highly skilled professionals to key institutions of the economy, including the Ministry of Finance, Central Bank of Nigeria CBN, and Federal Inland Revenue Service FIRS and created the Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy in a patriotic zeal to reposition and grow the economy.

“Lifting the Visa ban on Nigerians by the United Arab Emirates UAE authorities should ordinarily make any well-meaning Nigerian happy. Diplomatic rapprochement between Nigeria and UAE authorities is ongoing and details of outcomes will soon be made public.

“The matter of the proposed meeting with United States of America President Joe Biden does not even require elaboration. Having met with President Tinubu on the sidelines of the G-20 Nations summit in India, another meeting with President Biden during the United Nation’s General Assembly UNGA had become unnecessary and was not even on President Tinubu’s schedule, contrary to preliminary indications on the matter.”.

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