For the second time, the Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu has shunned the Town Hall meeting organised by Arise Television.

However, the presidential candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar; Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP), and Rabiu Musa Kwakwanso of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), were in attendance.

Recall that the spokesperson of the APC Campaign Council, Bayo Onanuga, had in a statement issued on Saturday, reiterated that Tinubu would not be attending Arise TV town hall meeting.

Onanuga also took a swipe at the media outlet over its constant broadcast of an advertisement about its scheduled town hall meeting which Tinubu had already declined participation.

The statement reads: “We find it shocking and downright anomalous that Arise News continues to broadcast the participation of All Progressives Congress Presidential Candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu in its Presidential Town Hall meeting scheduled to hold on 4 December 2022 despite our earlier statement that our candidate will not be available.

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“We noticed that Arise News 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 the right 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, Tinubu must participate in Arise News Town Hall event or any media organized 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 what events to participate in as he seeks the mandate of Nigerians to be elected as the next President of our country.

“We want to make it abundantly clear again that Asiwaju Tinubu will not participate and will not attend the Arise News Town Hall meeting slated for Sunday, 4 December 2022 and any other ones it may plan before the February 2023 presidential election.

“The APC Presidential candidate has its schedule of campaign activities and other engagements within and outside Nigeria. One of such event is scheduled for Monday, December 5, 2022, at Chatham House in London where he will speak on Security, Economy and Foreign Policy.”

Onanuga reiterated that for the umpteenth time, no amount of blackmail, bullying and media bullying, and innuendos by the owner and management of Arise News will change the position the party’s campaign had taken on attending town hall meetings.

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• He’s running from pillar to post, says LP

A former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, has finally decamped from the All Progressives Congress to the Peoples Democratic Party and will now be in the campaign train of the Atiku Abubakar, the PDP presidential candidate.

Indeed, Dogara was on Sunday appointed a member of the PDP presidential campaign council (PCC).

Aminu Tambuwal, director general of the PDP PCC and governor of Sokoto State, announced Dogara’s appointment in a statement on Sunday.

In a reaction to the development, the Labour Party has said the movement showed Dogara as a man still living in the past and is only running from pillar to post.

Dogara’s appointment came two days after he declared support for Atiku.

The Northern Leaders Consultative Forum, which Dogara is a part of, had endorsed Atiku and described him as “the best.”

As a member of the APC, the former speaker of the house of representatives, who is one of the party’s leaders of the Christian faith, kicked against the Muslim-Muslim ticket adopted by the party.

Bola Tinubu, APC presidential candidate and Kashim Shettima, his running mate are both Muslims.

Members of a group of northern Christians in the APC had also expressed reservations over the Muslim-Muslim ticket of the APC, and said it would adopt a consensus candidate.

Babachir Lawal, former secretary to the government of the federation (SGF) and leader of the group, had said Obi would be the group’s choice.

Dogara, however, alongside other members of the group, distanced themselves from Lawal’s endorsement.

In 2018, the former speaker of the house of representatives, had defected from the PDP to the APC because of “failure of governance” in Bauchi, where he hails from.

While Dogara has not made an official statement on his new appointment as at the time of this report, his new role is expected to start immediately.

Meanwhile, the campaign office of Peter Obi and Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed, presidential and vice-presidential candidates of the Labour Party (LP), says Yakubu Dogara, made a grave error in endorsing Atiku Abubakar.

The Obi-Datti campaign, in a statement, said Dogara had the right to support whomever he wants but trying to do that based on his selfish interest won’t augur well for him.

“Clearly, the former Speaker knows that he is swimming against the tide by his unpopular decision which amounts to running from frying pan to fire; from one injustice to another and claiming to be acting on behalf his people whose anger for the two wrongs of the two main political parties are glaring,” the statement read.

“Hon Dogara knows as a fact that his position does not reflect the heart and mind of majority of Nigerian populace who are already on the moving train to take back the country from the primeval political thinkers like him.”

The campaign said Dogara’s stand showed his double standard when he refused to support same faith ticket of his party but pitched his tent with the PDP that does not respect fairness.

“At his level as the Ex-leader of the national parliament, Hon. Dogara should have been privileged to read the hand writing on the wall vividly to know that where the pendulum swings today: the talk is not about political party, but about character, competence and capacity, because where the country precariously stands today requires nothing short to save it,” the campaign further said.

“Hon. Dogara as the Speaker of the House of Representatives successfully ran a parliament literally in the opposition to the Executive and heaven did not fall, yet he feels that a pragmatic President like Peter Obi would not be able to maneuver or steer the ship of state.”

The campaign added that it was obvious that the former speaker was still living in the past of the old politics that brought the country to its knees.

The Presidential candidate of Labour Party (LP) Peter Obi has finally unveiled his manifesto titled “Obi/Baba-Ahmed Pact with Nigerians.”

The National Publicity Secretary of the Labour Party, Abayomi Aranbambi, confirmed the development of Daily Trust on Saturday night.

The Manifesto sited by Daily Trust however promises seven key priority areas that were needed to jump start the economy and move the country from Consumption to production.

Some of the priority areas according to the pact includes to secure the country, end banditry and insurgency; and unite the country in such a way “that no one is left behind.”

Obi also promised to “Shift emphasis from consumption to production by running a production-centered economy that is driven by an agrarian revolution and export-oriented industrialization.

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