Atiku says Buhari should have been executed for overthrowing Shagari's elected government

PEOPLES Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has used the passing of former president Alhaji Shehu Shagari to respond to an attack on him by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) by saying President Muhammadu Buhari would have been executed for overthrowing a democratically elected government.

Last night, Alhaji Shagari passed away at the National Hospital, Abuja aged 93. In 1983, the then Major General Buhari overthrew the government of President Shagari in a popular coup amid widespread corruption, election rigging and political violence that made the Second Republic highly unpopular.

Earlier this week, Festus Keyamo, a spokesman for the Buhari Presidential Campaign, had hit out at former vice president Abubakar, saying he would have been jailed for corruption if the country’s system was working. Alhaji Abubakar was deputy to President Olusegun Obasanjo between 1999 and 2007 and was indicted for corruption, although he has never been formally charged with any offence.

Responding to the attack from Mr Keyamo, Alhaji Abubakar said that President Buhari should have been executed if Nigeria’s system was working. Speaking through his media aide Paul Ibe, the former vice president pointed out that in an ideal world, President Buhari should have been killed for overthrowing a democratically elected government in 1983.

Mr Ibe wrote on Twitter: “Festus Keyamo should be careful what he brings on himself and the APC campaign. If Nigeria had a working system, Muhammadu Buhari should have been executed for overthrowing a democratically elected government in 1983.”