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 Atiku Abubakar's campaign for president of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has asserted that some candidates for the All Progressives Congress (APC), the party in power, are opposed to Bola Tinubu's meeting with the five PDP governors who feel they have been wronged. According to reports that surfaced last week, Tinubu had meetings at his London home with Governors Nyesom Wike (Rivers), Samuel Ortom (Benue), Seyi Makinde (Oyo), Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Enugu), and Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia).

The APC candidate for president, however, had refuted reports of the meeting, saying that he was in Saudi Arabia for the Hajj. Phrank Shaibu, Atiku Abubakar's special assistant for public communication, accused Tinubu of lying to Naija News on Sunday about his meeting with the G-5 governors. He asserted that APC candidates, such as Senator Teslim Folarin, were opposed to any agreement with PDP governors because it would jeopardize his desire to lead Oyo State. Check out the full statement below:

Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), blatantly lied by denying ever meeting the governors in London. Tinubu was apparently dissatisfied with the responses that followed his ignoble meeting with the G-5 governors. Incidentally, Governor Nyesom Wike, who is renowned for his bravado, opted to say that "They said we had a meeting with so and so" rather than deny ever meeting with Tinubu.

I boldly assert that Wike would have denied the G-5's meeting with Tinubu had it not been for their question, "What is your problem?" Curiously, two spokesmen for the APC presidential campaign, Festus Keyamo and Femi Fani-Kayode, took to social media to celebrate the support Tinubu would be receiving from the G-5 while the news of the meeting, which was reported by several reliable media outlets, was trending.

Fani-Kayode made the following statement on Facebook: "The endorsement and declaration of support that Bola Ahmed Tinubu will receive from at least six (not just five) governors from the PDP this January will finally put to rest the delusion that Atiku will stubbornly harbor about winning the 2023 presidential election." It's funny that Tinubu decided it was time to release a statement denying the meeting ever took place three whole days after reports of the meeting.

The G-5 and Tinubu all made the same travel plans to London and left at the same times, with Tinubu going to Saudi Arabia and the other governors going back to Nigeria. This is an incredibly coincidental arrangement. In any case, Wike later released a statement confirming that the G-5 did meet with Tinubu and the other candidates separately, despite the fact that Tinubu had also denied plans to do so in August.

Therefore, it is best to disregard Tinubu's most recent denial as another fabrication. Nigerians may be wondering why Tinubu would deny that such a meeting ever took place. The answer is that the meeting's specifics are too complicated, and the APC candidates in the five states are retaliating.

Governor Wike is not on the ballot, but the other G-5 governors are, and the APC candidates for governor and the National Assembly from the affected states, where the G-5 governors are in power, are fighting back. Sen. Teslim Folarin, the APC governorship candidate, is reportedly furious in Oyo over a nefarious plan to trade off his mandate. Abia, Enugu, Benue, and, of course, Rivers State are all experiencing the same thing. This heinous action reveals the character of the man who is running to be the next president of Nigeria.

Tinubu is a treacherous man who is more of a dealer than a leader. He still hasn't given Nigerians an explanation for his disgraceful involvement in the infamous heroin trafficking case that resulted in his forfeiture of $460,000. For power, he will sacrifice every one of his supporters. This desperation was made evident in 2011 when Tinubu pulled the rug out from under Nuhu Ribadu of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and struck a deal with the Federal Government to guarantee that President Goodluck Jonathan would win.

Because Nigerians have determined that their future will not be placed in the hands of a man who is willing to trade their destinies for a meager bowl of porridge or agbado, all of Tinubu's schemes will fail. The truth is that no amount of horse trading will be able to erase Nigerians' memories of the torture they endured during the last almost eight years under the APC.