Melaye accuses APC, Tinubu of allegedly sponsoring blackmail moves against Atiku

One of the spokesperson for the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) Presidential Campaign Council, Dino Melaye, has tagged one Michael Achimugu who claims to be an ex-aide to Atiku Abubakar as a serial blackmailer who is allegedly being sponsored by the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, against the PDP candidate.

In the past few days, Achimugu had taken every media opportunity to accuse former Vice President Atiku of using Special Purpose Vehicles to embezzle funds when he was Nigeria’s Vice President between 1999 and 2007.

Following the series of accusations, the Tinubu presidential campaign council subsequently gave the Directorate of State Services (DSS) a 72 hours ultimatum to arrest and prosecute Atiku for alleged money laundering and a breach of the penal and criminal code.

But Melaye, while appearing as a guest on a Channels Television political programme on Monday, dismissed the allegations, saying that Achimugu was never an aide to the PDP presidential flag bearer and was sponsored by the APC to blackmail Atiku.

“Mike (Achimugu) is being sponsored by the APC, Mike is being sponsored by Bola Ahmed Tinubu and that is why they need to follow up for the project they started in Mike. Mike is not a media aide of Atiku Abubakar,” Melaye said.

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“Achimugu is a blackmailer who has three ongoing cases of blackmail in court.

“The letters he brought online which Festus Keyamo is referring to are letters from support groups. It does not have the mandate of Atiku Abubakar, it is not from our campaign council and those letters were written by people that have no close ties with Atiku Abubakar,” the former Kogi senator said.

He further accused the APC of orchestrating lies having realised that Atiku was a “leading presidential candidate” for the February 25 presidential election.

“Atiku remains the most investigated Nigerian as of today but has never been indicted or tried for corruption by any court in the country,” he added.

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