As a customs officer, Atiku broke the Nigerian Constitution — Tinubu

All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu over the weekend described People's Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar as an outlaw.

Tinubu's allegation followed the revelation of the PDP presidential candidate during his interview with the Arise TV team on Friday.

During the interview, Atiku revealed that as a customs officer at the Idi Iroko border, he ran a private transport company.

Tinubu, in a statement released and signed by Bayo Onanuga, Director of Tinubu's Media and Communications Campaign Organization, said that Atiku's assertion that "no law prevents agents to do business in Nigeria" was false.

"We watched Alhaji Atiku Abubakar's interview on ARISE Television and were extremely shocked by the many lies and ignorance displayed by the presidential candidate of the People's Democratic Party.

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"In the interview, Alhaji Atiku presented himself as a man who is unprepared for the job he is applying for and a man who cannot be trusted with our common good. He was flippant in his answer to important questions about his service and how he made money serving in customs, he confused the facts and exhibited a baffling absence of wit.

"It was very shocking that Atiku admitted that he had cheated the system for decades and committed serious misconduct as a government employee. As a customs officer at the Idi-Iroko border , Atiku revealed that he ran a commercial taxi service, saying "there is no law preventing public officials from doing business in Nigeria" He hit harder, saying there was no conflict interest in doing so.

"We found that to be wrong.

"Every public servant is required to abide by a code of conduct and service rules that prohibit civil servants and civil servants from engaging in private business while employed by the government to the detriment of the service it is charged with rendering to the public. The 1999 constitution further codifies this in Part I, Fifth Schedule, Section 2(b).

"It is said that a public official shall not, except when not employed on a full-time basis, engage in or participate in the management or management of any business, profession or private trade. The rules, however, allow a public official to engage in agriculture.

"We wonder what rule or law Atiku relied on for his gross misconduct as a public officer. We are of the opinion that Atiku played with the system throughout his career in civil service, culminating in his founding of Intel Logistics with Late Shehu Yar'Adua and some Italians, even while he was still employed by the Nigeria Customs Service. ."

The Tinubu campaign organization further stated that the PDP presidential candidate displayed "poor knowledge of key sectors of the economy: We also found it surprising that the PDP presidential candidate PDP is unaware of the oil and gas industry's contribution to Nigeria's GDP, he claimed that the sector accounts for 20% of our national GDP while it is less than 10% and continues to decline due to the growth of the non-oil sector under the current administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, led by the General Congress of Progressives.”