Former Minister of Transport, Ebenezer Babatope, on Tuesday berated former President Olusegun Obasanjo, accusing him of feeding Nigerians with false information aimed at tarnishing the image of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and President Goodluck Jonathan.
Babatope, who spoke to newsmen on the latest statement credited to Obasanjo where he claimed that Jonathan has depleted Nigeria’s foreign reserves, said he would no longer watch while Obasanjo churns out information that may incite Nigerians against the PDP and the president.
He said he believed that the former president was no longer a member of the party, though the national leadership of the PDP has not disowned him as a member.
“I haven’t got detrimental against Obasanjo in terms of speaking. He can say anything he wants to say but it is in the nature of the man to believe that his opinion is the best in the world.
“One has to be careful. You cannot be right all the time. And that is why he provokes controversy all the time. What I know is that henceforth, we will not allow him to make reckless statements that can dampen the interest of our party before the Nigerian people,” Babatope stated.
On whether there were plans by the PDP to checkmate Obasanjo, he said: “We are doing something now that I can’t reveal at this moment. But people have been talking about the contents of his book, ‘My Watch’. And I said ‘Obasanjo is a writer, he can write anything he wants to write. But if he writes anything about me in his book, I will immediatelty write my own because he is not the only one gifted in writing. Those of us who are younger than him believes that if he hits us, we will hit him back.
“He said he is a PDP man. The party has not disproved that; so I will not say he is no longer in PDP but as far as I am concerned, I no longer regard him as a member of PDP. If he attacks us, I will take my counter-attack to him.”
Babatope, who is a member of PDP Board of Trustees (BoT) said it is expected that Obasanjo would still issue further provocative statements in the days ahead because he already has a set programme aimed at maligning the president and the PDP ahead of the general election.
“Obasanjo has got his set programmes that he is going to be unleashing as the election draws near. What he is going to be saying next week, he already has it. But he now knows that some people are hovering over him to counter-him and nail him,” he said.
Source: Daily Independent
