The Atiku/Okowa Presidential Campaign Organisation has slammed Bola Tinubu, presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), and his running mate, Senator Kashim Shettima, for staying away from national debates, noting that they are afraid of being exposed.

The spokesperson for the Atiku Abubakar Campaign Organisation, Kola Ologbondiyan, who made the remark on Sunday, said Tinubu had a record of avoiding debates and public interrogations for fear that Nigerians might take him to task on his alleged stinking corruption record, reported proxy treasury looting, obvious incompetence, ethnic bigotry, as well as his alleged masterminding of APC’s anti-people policies that wrecked Nigeria in the last seven and a half years.

According to Ologbondiyan, the APC presidential candidate and his running mate could not face debate for fear of having Tinubu’s claims of building Lagos State publicly exposed as a hoax.

He said the former Lagos State governor could not point to any legacy development project he achieved in the state.

In his words, “Asiwaju Tinubu is also aware that he cannot face the public to answer questions bordering on his past, particularly, the question on his ancestry, the Alpha-Beta tax saga; as well as his alleged stranglehold on the business, politics and lives of Lagosians from 1999 till date.

“He is afraid of being exposed to fleecing Lagos State for eight years through multiple and harsh tax regimes with nothing to show other than rulership by the brawl, breeding of touts and raising criminal street gangs, only to turn around now to attempt to claim the achievements of succeeding governors as his. While continuing to use Alpha-Beta to extort Lagosians for nearly 20 years. Alpha-Beta is the sole tax collecting agency in Lagos.

“Nigerians will recall that the APC presidential candidate did not attend the signing of the National Peace Accord in Abuja; he failed to turn up at Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industries, he avoided the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Conference and shunned the televised debate organised by credible media houses and civil society groups in Abuja on Sunday to attend a marriage bash in the same nation’s capital.

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“Is it not strange that Tinubu, who claims to be a progressive, is dodging debate, a hallmark of progressivism?

“Asiwaju Tinubu and Kashim Shettima have turned themselves into a butt of public jokes over their reported inability to even defend the scripts that were written for them with spurious claims and litany of fake promises, which Nigerians have appropriately tagged as ‘Renewed Hopelessness’.”

Ologbondiyan explained that it was apparent that the APC presidential candidate could not detail his running mate to represent him at the Abuja debate ostensibly because of Shettima’s abysmal performance at the last Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industries outing.

He challenged the Tinubu/Shettima campaign to come clean on allegations in the public domain that the former Borno State governor was avoiding the debates for fear of awaiting probing questions on the alleged compromise of security during his tenure as governor, which resulted in the kidnap of about 270 students in Chibok.

Ologbondiyan stressed that under Shettima’s watch as governor, there were unanswered questions over a series of deadly terrorist attacks in Borno State.

“Is Senator Shettima afraid of explaining to Nigerians why his government did not heed the alleged security warning and directive by the federal government to relocate the schoolgirls to a safer location, which would have averted the abduction?

“In shunning public debates, both Tinubu and Shettima have shown that they have nothing to offer and that they are in the presidential race just for personal aggrandisement and not to serve Nigerians,” he added.

On the other hand, Ologbondiyan said Nigerians were celebrating the dazzling performance of the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, and the vice presidential candidate, Dr Ifeanyi Okowa, in public debates, media interviews and town hall meetings.

He said in readiness to take over power on May 29 next year, the PDP candidates had given excellent answers to questions and proffered practicable solutions to the myriads of problems brought to the country by APC.

PDP says Tinubu running from debates to avoid being exposed