ABUJA: The camp of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar on Tuesday launched a blistering counterattack on Senator Adams Oshiomhole, accusing the former national chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress APC of “weaponizing noise to mask the catastrophic failures” of the party.

Oshiomhole had branded Atiku a defection expert, following the former vice president’s official registration with the African Democratic Congress, ADC, having ditched the Peoples Democratic Party PDP.

In a strongly worded statement signed by Phrank Shaibu, Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication to Atiku Abubakar, the ex-vice president’s camp said Oshiomhole had no moral standing to question Atiku’s leadership credentials, insisting that the APC senator should “check the mirror before speaking.”

Shaibu argued that Oshiomhole was attempting to distract Nigerians from what he described as “the monumental failures of the APC, the very party he helped foist on Nigeria, and the same party that has driven the country to its worst state in decades.”

The statement dismissed Oshiomhole’s remarks as “a tired distraction,” insisting that Atiku, as Vice President, was neither national chairman of the PDP nor a dictator presiding over a one-man political empire.

Shaibu stressed that, unlike the APC, the PDP was never run as a “private estate controlled from Bourdillon,” and that Atiku operated within a democratic institution where decisions were not “tele-guided by one individual.”

“If Oshiomhole seeks the man who ‘fixed a party’ into a personal empire, he needs only look at the godfather he serves. Under the APC, party supremacy died, dissent was criminalised, and institutions of state became partisan weapons. That is the only kind of ‘fixing’ Oshiomhole understands,” he stated.

The statement defended Atiku’s national record, describing him as a leader whose achievements remain unmatched.

It recalled that Atiku chaired the National Economic Council, rebuilt investor confidence, strengthened the private sector and midwifed reforms that reshaped Nigeria’s economy.

“He has never been President, yet his development blueprint remains the most coherent Nigeria has seen in decades,” Shaibu maintained.

Turning his criticism back on the APC senator, Shaibu said, “If the APC could not fix Nigeria after eight wasted years and nearly three years of Tinubu, what moral authority does Oshiomhole have to comment on leadership?”

He contrasted what he called Atiku’s “vision, experience and capacity” with the APC’s “noise, propaganda, and bruising legacy.”

“Oshiomhole represents the failure of a party that betrayed the hopes of millions. He should sit this one out,” he added. (Vanguard)