APC campaign Council denies reports of Tinubu’s plan to shift capital to Lagos

The All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council (APC PCC) has debunked a rumor that its presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, will shift Nigeria’s capital city back to Lagos if he emerges as president next year.

The Council Director of Media and Publicity, Bayo Onanuga, in a statement on Tuesday, slammed opposition parties for campaigns of calumny.

Onanuga also accused them of peddling fake news around the commercialisation of Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited by President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration.

The Council, which described Tinubu as the destined successor to President Muhammadu Buhari, condemned Atiku’s plan to privatize most national assets controlled by the federal government.

The statement read: “The All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council hereby alerts Nigerians about the latest insidious campaign in some parts of the country against our candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

“After exhausting their arsenal of calumnies and character assassination against Tinubu, the opposition PDP and their surrogate Labour Party have begun a multi-pronged desperate campaign of falsehoods.

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“After exhausting their arsenal of calumnies and character assassination against Tinubu, the opposition PDP and their surrogate Labour Party have begun a multi-pronged desperate campaign of falsehoods.

“In one of the falsehoods being circulated, especially in the North West of the country, Tinubu is said to harbor plans to relocate the Federal Capital from Abuja to Lagos on succeeding President Muhammad Buhari from 29th May 2023.

“This misinformation campaign, according to field reports, is being given some traction by some elders on the payroll of the Peoples Democratic Party.

“We are shocked that some people could contrive such an egregious lie, all in the name of politics, to confuse our burgeoning support base in that part of the country.

“Let us emphasize that Asiwaju does not contemplate any such plan and will not do anything that is so ultra-unconstitutional.

“The same purveyors of falsehood have also been distorting the commercialization of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited by the APC government of President Muhammadu Buhari.

“The truth is that President Buhari has not privatized NNPC as planned by the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar. Buhari has instead made it a commercial entity, owned by all the tiers of government, in line with the Petroleum Industry Act.

“In due course, the company will be in a position to declare and share dividends to all its owners, the way Aramco of Saudi Arabia and Petrobas of Brazil do.

“As the destined successor of President Buhari, Asiwaju Tinubu will continue the policy of the Buhari administration. Unlike Atiku, Tinubu has no plan to sell NNPC to his friends or cronies.”

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