The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, has lamented that in just 40 days of President Bola Tinubu’s administration, poverty has deepened in the country with inflation skyrocketing and making innocent Nigerians susceptible to manipulation.

It also warned supporters of Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress (APC) against disrupting proceedings at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT).

Atiku, in a statement by his Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, yesterday, said the warning was imperative following alleged “sponsored protest” at the European Union (EU) head office in Abuja, in the aftermath of the release of the EU Observer Mission report on the 2023 general elections.

“Today, food has become a luxury. The purchasing power of the people has dropped no thanks to an unplanned petrol subsidy removal, which was not accompanied by any form of palliatives. With just N1,000, any riffraff on the street could be handed a t-shirt and placard to engage in protests they know nothing about. This is how low Nigeria has sunk low since Tinubu took over the reins of government. Tinubu blamed Godwin Emefiele for the country’s economic woes and ordered his detention while he continues to shower praises on the man who not only appointed Emefiele but gave him a national award. This is the height of hypocrisy,” he said.

The EU report had scored the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) low over the conduct of the election. However, the Presidency kicked against the report.

Nevertheless, the PDP candidate said it was curious that security agencies allegedly provided cover for protesters to picket the EU office in Abuja.

“We find it curious that the same security agencies which have been issuing statements barring protests were curiously available to provide cover for sponsored pro-government protesters to picket the EU office. We sound a note of warning to the security agencies to be on the alert as the tribunal proceedings wind down. The world is watching.”

He added: “No one needs to be told that the 2023 presidential election was one of the worst ever conducted in Nigeria’s history. The 2007 election was similarly bad, but at least, the key recipient, President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, admitted the poll was flawed and immediately kicked off electoral reforms. However, Tinubu, by rejecting the EU report, has ruled out the possibility of electoral reform.

“Tinubu is the opposite of a statesman. He claims the 2023 election is the best Nigeria has had since 1999 and continues to draw parallels between it and the epochal June 12, 1993 election by constantly mentioning the name of MKO Abiola and Hope 93. This is the height of deception. MKO’s victory was spick and span. MKO Abiola represented the hope of a generation while Tinubu stole the hope of a generation. Tinubu’s renewed hope is nothing but renewed hopelessness, a continuation of Buhari’s eight years of monumental failure. It is simply, as the youths say, ‘renewed shege’. We ask Nigerians to tarry a while as we wait for the judiciary to correct the evil that INEC imposed on over 200 million people.”