Group Tells Atiku: Tinubu Not Eyeing NNPCL Takeover For Family, Friends

The Tinubu Media Support Group (TMSG) has described former Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s latest attack on President Bola Tinubu over the OVH deal with Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) as another example of the idiom “misery loves company,” claiming that it was all an attempt to be heard.

The TMSG has confirmed that Atiku Abubakar is unhappy and wants to share his problems with others, which is why he is making false allegations against the president, hoping for consolation that his false allegations will make others as sad, lonely, and depressed as him.

In a statement signed by its Chairman Emeka Nwankpa and Secretary Dapo Okubanjo, TMSG stated that Atiku’s claim that the President’s family has hijacked NNPCL operations is not only false but also a projection of something he could easily have done if elected President.

The statement reads in part, “We are taken aback by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s attempt to link President Bola Tinubu to a deal consummated by NNPCL in October 2022 with OVH, which he claimed belonged to the President’s family.

“This is yet another rumour from the stable of an ‘elder statesman’ who has yet to accept his devastating electoral defeat at the hands of a man he has previously described in glowing terms.

“Understandably, the former Vice President would experience post-election trauma as a result of his repeated electoral losses, but we do not expect it to last this long. And certainly not to the extent of him gripping over tales from the rumour mills, all in a bid to constantly cast President Tinubu in a bad light, this time alleging that his family owns NNPCL.

“We know how much he wanted the state-owned company, to the point where he declared at a business summit before the 2019 election that he would sell it to his friends, adding incredibly, “Are my friends not entitled to be enriched?”

“And, as we stated a few weeks ago in response to a similar diatribe from the Atiku camp, this is another example of the idiom’misery loves company.’” A man who has faced multiple allegations of financial malfeasance during his time in government will always believe that everyone is like him.

“It did not surprise us that Oando, which Atiku and his media handlers claim has a stake in NNPCL through OVH, has come out to accuse the former Vice President of falsehood, just as the state-owned oil company has also dismissed the latest Atiku lie.

“This has been the regular pastime of a well-oiled team steeped in beer parlour stories and propaganda, but lacking in meticulous research and rational thinking.

“If they had done their homework, they would have known that Oando had divested its stake in the petroleum industry’s downstream sector between 2016 and 2019, allowing it to focus on the industry’s midstream and upstream activities.

“A simple Google search could have saved Atiku and his team from another embarrassing situation in which they were accused of spreading false information.

“So we boldly state that Wale Tinubu-owned Oando PLC is not the same entity as OVH, which Atiku and his supporters claim belongs to the Tinubu family. We are confident that we will be proven correct in our assessment of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain as someone who authorises statements without regard for accuracy.

“And while the former Vice President is still recovering from his post-election blues, we, like many Nigerians, expect him to sue his former principal, President Olusegun Obasanjo, who, in Chapter 36 of his book ‘My watch,’ linked him to the embezzlement of $145 million from the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF).

“Moreover, the country is still reeling from the effects of Atiku Abubakar’s shoddy handling of a privatisation process, which killed several thriving Government Owned Enterprises (GOEs) and erased thousands of jobs at Aluminium Smelter Company of Nigeria (ALSCON), Electricity Meter Company of Nigeria (ELMCON), Ajaokuta Steel Company, Delta Steel Company, and Peugeot Automobile of Nigeria (PAN), to name a few.

“He has failed in so many areas, and we find it utterly insulting that the same man who was used as a case study on foreign corruption by the US Senate in 2010 is now posing as the nation’s conscience more than two decades after leaving office.”

TMSG urged Nigerians to view the former Vice President’s latest allegation as yet another chapter in his bitter political career.