The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency has been asked to subject the presidential candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and the All Progressives Congress, APC, Atiku Abubakar and Bola Tinubu, to narcotic test.
A spokesperson for the Peoples Democratic Party Presidential Campaign Council, Senator Dino Melaye, made the demand.
He said this would help to ascertain their fitness for the highest elective office in the country.
In an interview with journalists on Saturday, Melaye said, “I call on the leading presidential candidates to submit themselves to medical fitness examination, including narcotics examination. I call on the NDLEA Chairman, Buba Marwa, to take Atiku and Tinubu for drug tests because anyone who will be our president must be free of drugs. This is important as our country is battling the scourge of drug abuse.
“Tinubu is not fit. I challenge him to a medical examination and Atiku will do same. We want to see if Tinubu’s pronouncement of agbado, cassava and 50 million youths to be employed in the army and people tweeting on WhatsApp are mere statements or they were made out of mental imbalance.
“Aso Rock is looking for a healer, not a patient. Nigerians don’t want another president that will be visiting London every week and cause us economic and social distractions.”
Melaye also argued that the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Mr Peter Obi, does not have what it takes to unite the country.
He stated, “Peter Obi has no capacity to unite this country. You don’t give a carpentry job to a tailor. Nigerians must know that any vote for Peter Obi is a vote for the APC because Obi cannot make it. Anybody campaigning for Obi is actually working for Tinubu to become the President.”
He however lauded Obi’s work ethics but said the Labour Party did not have the spread to win a presidential election for now.
He described late Chief Obafemi Awolowo and Aminu Kano as great men with integrity but argued that they could not win presidential elections because they didn’t have the national spread.
“The current President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd), ran thrice and lost until he embraced a national platform. Historically, Peter Obi ought to know that no regional champion can become the President of Nigeria,” Melaye added.
Meanwhile, Melaye who represented Kogi West Senatorial District in the 8th National Assembly, in a statement took a swipe at former Aviation Minister Femi Fani-Kayode, for describing Tinubu and his running mate, Kashim Shettima, as godly men bent on helping the nation.
In the statement titled, ‘Femi Fani-Kayode: the puerile defender of the ungodly’, he said the former minister should have embraced the teachings of Proverbs 17 vs 28, saying his description of Shettima was ironic.
He added, “What sardonic humour to award Shettima the undeserved award of a helper of Nigeria? Where is the record of that service? Where was Shettima when the Chibok girls were hauled into Sambisa Forest (in 2014)?
“My brotherly counsel for Femi Fani-Kayode is to always be in a good frame of mind, which could offer him the alertness to know what to say, when to say it and to whom to say it. It’s another bad outing for an unguarded parrot.”
