The presidential flag bearer of the All Progressives Congress, Bola Tinubu, has jetted out of the country for the United Kingdom, Sunday PUNCH reliably reports.
Tinubu is scheduled for an engagement at the Chatham House in London on Monday, where he is billed to speak on security, economy and foreign policy.
The development is coming on the eve of the presidential town hall meeting organised by Arise TV for candidates of the four major political parties in the country.
Tinubu’s travel to London was disclosed in a statement by the Director of Media and Publicity, APC Presidential Campaign Council, Bayo Onanuga, titled, ‘Tinubu Won’t Succumb to Arise News’ Blackmail’.
Onanuga said he found it ‘shocking and downright anomalous’ that Arise TV continues to broadcast the participation of Tinubu in its town hall meeting despite an earlier statement that the APC candidate would not be available for the engagement.
He said, “We noticed that Arise TV has also been running a campaign on the so-called constitutional duty of the presidential candidates to participate in its debate by dubiously citing Section 22 of the Constitution of Nigeria on the obligation of the mass media.
“While it is trite that the media has a clear constitutional duty to hold public office holders accountable to the citizens and its role as the watchdog of the society, there is no part of the Constitution and Section 22 that says a presidential candidate of any political party and least of all, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu must participate in Arise News Town Hall event or any media organised an event at all.
“The same Constitution grants all citizens of Nigeria including, Asiwaju Tinubu the right and freedom of choice and association. The APC Presidential candidate has a right to decide where he goes and events to participate in as he seeks the mandate of Nigerians to be elected as the next President of our country.”
He further alleged that the TV network had “consistently shown a pattern of bias against Asiwaju Tinubu and we don’t consider the medium as credible and impartial”.
The statement further read, “The APC Presidential candidate has his own schedule of campaign activities and other engagements within and outside Nigeria. One such event is his scheduled event for Monday, December 5, 2022, at Chatham House in London where he will speak on security, economy and foreign policy.
“Asiwaju Tinubu travelled to the United Kingdom early today (Saturday) for this earlier scheduled engagement. We want to reiterate for the umpteenth time that no amount of blackmail, intimidation and media bullying and innuendos by the owner and management of Arise News will change the position our campaign has taken on this matter.”
Onanuga also warned all the spokespersons and supporters of Tinubu to steer clear of the TV station over its “consistent unprofessionalism and bias against our candidate and party”.
Meanwhile, the Atiku/Okowa Presidential Campaign Organisation has said that Tinubu’s foreign trip was a ploy for the APC presidential candidate to avoid the Arise TV debate.
Spokesman for the organisation, Kola Ologbondiyan, in a statement on Friday, said, “It is clear that the foreign trip embarked on by Asiwaju Tinubu was a deliberate plot to dodge the Arise TV debate scheduled to hold on Sunday (today) following the fear that Nigerians will take him to task on the FCT relocation plot, alleged criminal indictments, perjury, forgery and inconsistencies in age, name, ancestry and education qualification.
“Moreover, the handlers of the APC presidential candidate are not comfortable to put him before the cameras because of his constant embarrassing gaffes that question his fitness for the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
