The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the February 23 election, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has alleged that President Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC) are planning to falsely accuse him of treason in order to jail him.

Reacting to the statement by the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed which accused him and the PDP of plotting to destabilize the current government, Atiku through a statement issued on Wednesday by his media adviser, Paul Ibe said in his desperation to remain in power, Buhari wants to rope him into a phantom coup plot.

The statement read in part: “We want to know why the desperation on the part of the Muhammadu Buhari government to rope in the PDP and its Presidential candidate in phantom plots?

“Obviously, President Buhari wants to replay the phantom coup plot saga of his now deceased mentor, who threw former President Olusegun Obasanjo in jail after falsely accusing him of treason in order to perpetuate himself in power.

“Could it be that they are now aware that the electoral fraud they perpetrated during the last presidential election is about to be exposed beyond a shadow of a doubt?”

“For the avoidance of doubt, Atiku Abubakar resisted the Abacha dictatorship, of which President Muhammadu Buhari was a prominent member and it is his resistance and the sacrifice of his co-travelers like Chief MKO Abiola and Alex Ekwueme amongst others that gave rise to the democracy that the current government is now trampling on.

“It is preposterous that those who threatened to ‘soak the dog and the baboon in blood’ are now audacious enough to point the finger at lifelong democrats. Truly, if the farmer does not raise the alarm on time, the thief will accuse him of being a thief.”