A member of the All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council for Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Jesutega Onokpasa has said former governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello and his Kaduna State counterpart, Nasir el-Rufai would have calmed the violent demonstration in the Northern part of the country if they are not being persecuted and inundated with unsubstantiated charges.
He said the former governors, in their characteristic manner, would have taken up the task of speaking up for President Bola Tinubu, calming frayed nerves and ensuring that peace reigns in the region.
Onokpasa made this known in a video clip while lambasting appointees of President Tinubu who are from the North for failing to take any action in defending Tinubu’s government and ensuring sanity among participants of the nationwide protest.
According to the lawyer, many appointees of President Tinubu, especially those from the North, do not really love him and neither do they support his government, adding that all they do is to paint Yahaya Bello and Nasir el-Rufai black by cooking up unfounded rumours that the former governors and the Minister of Defence, Bello Matawalle are sponsoring the nationwide protest and that they were behind the display of Russian flags by some northern protesters.
Onokpasa expressed disappointment that some idle appointees of Tinubu and APC loyalists had been parroting the rumour even when they were supposed to be synergizing on how to restore normalcy in the country in the wake of the nationwide protest.
The APC chieftain described Bello and El-Rufai as true BATists who contributed immensely to the emergence of President Tinubu, maintaining that if the duo were not encumbered with politically motivated issues, they would have risen to the violent demonstration in the north, restored calm and assured them of the good intentions of President Tinubu.
Calling on APC supporters and appointees of the federal government to maintain caution over unfounded speculations and hearsays that might further divide the ruling party, Onokpasa stressed that Bello, El-Rufai, Matawalle and others mentioned in the alleged plot against Tinubu were known strong supporters of Tinubu who assiduously supported him to electoral victory and still work for his success.
Onokpasa warned against pull-him-down syndrome in APC, lamenting that the party was gradually falling apart. He called on all genuine Batists and supporters of APC to desist from persecuting and painting Yahaya Bello and Nasir el-Rufai bad, saying no amount of their evil ploys against the duo would take away their huge commitments in the presidency of Tinubu.
“Nobody is perfect. I have fundamental differences with them, but they are our brothers, they stood with us when it mattered most. Who is perfect? Am I? No one is, not even Asiwaju that is perfect. Only our Lord Jesus Christ is perfect, only God is perfect.
“Can you imagine, Russia? We are bigger than Russia. We have more population than Russia. Carrying Russian flags on our own soil, calling for military coup? That Yahaya and Nasir are in Niger? Doing what? Where is the proof? There is something really wrong with us in this party. We are just falling apart.
“Now, so far, what I would say in the northern dimension of this so called nationwide protest, which is just an excuse for mayhem; if we had our members (Bello and El-Rufai) still with us, fully with us, free to do what every Nigerian citizen should do, if we had Yahaya Bello, if we had Nasir el-Rufai, these are people like me, they are not afraid of anything, they will speak their minds, they would have calmed down the north, they would have spoken up for Asiwaju,” Onokpasa maintained.
“I urge you all, my genuine and authentic supporters of Bola Tinubu, who contributed to making him President according to the will of God because it is the will of God that made Asiwaju President.
“I want you all to forget all this nonsense, let us come back together. Yahaya Bello, Nasir El-Rufai are part of us, they are our brothers, they have nothing to do with nationwide protest,” he emphasised.
