Just as Nigerians are wondering about the whereabouts of APC’s presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, a powerful member of his campaign team and serving Minister, Mr Festus Keyamo (SAN), also denied any knowledge of his whereabouts.
Keyamo, the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, declared that he did not have any information on Tinubu’s whereabouts about two weeks since he travelled out of the country.
“Our candidate is not in the country currently and I don’t have any information on where he is. I know he will be back in a couple of days but I don’t know the particular day,” he said on Wednesday evening.
Keyamo spoke when he appeared on Channels TV “Politics Today” anchored by Seun Okinbaloye and monitored by Persecondnews.
Insisting that he was not aware of the “current location” of the party’s presidential candidate, the lawyer dismissed speculations that the former Lagos State governor travelled out of the country for medical reasons.
“Only mischief makers are gravely concerned about Tinubu’s whereabouts. Nobody makes a fuss when the presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, travelled to Dubai.
“He is also not on a medical trip; I don’t have such information. It is not true that we have not started campaigns because the candidate is sick and is not around.”
On Tinubu’s recent video posted on social media on a spinning bike in London, Keyamo said the video was not to prove to people that he is alive.
“As far as I am concerned it was done in real-time and posted on his Twitter handle. It is not to prove that he is alive, we are not trying to prove anything to anybody.
“Our candidate is not struggling to prove himself to anybody. People who are close to him know that he is an avid cyclist, he does that all the time, and it is his regular routine.
“I think what we want to prove this period is to correct mischievous enquires by mischief makers. We want to prove that the tail doesn’t wag the dog, it is the dog that wags its tail.
“It is not every time you ask mischievous questions, we would be struggling to prove ourselves. We are not dancing to the tune of the opposition. We have our tune and music and we would do with it whatsoever we like.
“We are not going to be reacting all the time to what the opposition is doing with mischief,” Keyamo stressed.
“We are all aware that the Presidential candidate of the PDP, Atiku Abubakar, travels to Dubai all the time, I don’t see any media intensity on what he is doing in Dubai.
“Whenever he travels, nobody remembers him until he comes back a week or two later. They know he is the candidate to beat and so the search light is on him and we are proud of that,” he rationalized.
Persecondnews had reported that on September 29, 2022, all the Presidential candidates of the political parties except Tinubu signed a peace accord in Abuja committing themselves to a peaceful campaign for the 2023 polls.
Among the candidates present were Atiku Abubakar of the PDP, Peter Obi of the Labour Party, and Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) and Omoyele Sowore of African Action Congress.
Others were Hamzat Al-Mustapha of Action Alliance, Sunday Adenuga of Boot Party and the only female candidate in the race, Chichi Ojei of Allied People’s Movement (APM), Christoper Imumolen of the Accord Party; Yabagi Sani of Action Democratic Party, Dumebi Kachikwu of African Democratic Congress (ADC), and Dan Nwanyanwu of the Zenith Labour Party.
Tinubu was, however, represented by his running mate, Sen. Kashim Shettima, a development that triggered reactions from Nigerians as to his whereabouts.
Leave a comment