Atiku Abubakar, the candidate for president of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has asked the Department of State Services (DSS), the Nigeria Police Force, and other security agencies to invite Femi Fani-Kayode, the director of special projects and new media for the Tinubu/Shettima presidential campaign council, to explain his claims and hints that Atiku and top generals are planning a coup.

In a statement on Sunday, Atiku’s Special Assistant for Public Communications, Mr Phrank Shaibu, said this in response to a tweet by Fani-Kayode that said Atiku met with top army generals to talk about a possible plan to stop the election or stage a coup, which is a crime punishable by death.

Shaibu said, “Ordinarily, we wouldn’t have bothered responding to Fani-Kayode, who has over the years built a reputation of being a liar, so much so that the Nigeria Union of Journalists even publicly blacklisted him after his disgraceful outburst at a journalist.

“However, allegations and insinuations of a coup should not be taken lightly given the fact that it is treason, an offence that carries the death penalty. While commending the Nigerian military for effectively rubbishing Fani-Kayode’s barefaced lie, we call on security agencies to invite him to shed more light on the allegations.”

Shaibu said that Fani-Kayode’s attempt to take back what he said was too late, and he also said that the accusations were too serious to be ignored.

He said, “No! Fani Kayode cannot recant. We refuse to accept that. He who comes to equity must come with clean hands. He who comes to the Lord must come with contrition. Contrition requires remorse and confession. If Fani-Kayode wants Nigerians to take him seriously, it is his confession that he lied or his provision of proof that he did not.

“This man, who has vilified many people, wants to get acceptance without doing penance for an act of wickedness!”

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Shaibu said that when the late Deputy Governor of the Central Bank, Obadiah Mailafia, noted that a governor in office was a Boko Haram leader, the DSS and the police called him five times until he had to run to court.

He said Fani-Kayode shouldn’t get special treatment just because he works for the party in power.

“The late Mailafia was invited more than five times by the DSS and the police for saying a serving governor was a Boko Haram commander. Fani-Kayode has also made an allegation that borders on security and must thus be invited to expiate as failure to do so will be partisanship,” Shaibu stated.

He said, “In a statement on March 2, 2015, the then APC National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed (now information minister), said Fani-Kayode may have been ‘unhinged, perhaps as a result of a relapse into an unhealthy lifestyle of substance abuse’.”

Shaibu said it was funny that Fani-Kayode was skipping his corruption trial at the Federal High Court in Lagos because he was sick, but he was still working hard on Tinubu’s campaign.

He added, “Fani-Kayode is currently facing corruption charges to the tune of N4.9bn before Justice Abike Fadipe at the Federal High Court in Lagos. For several months he refused to show up in court but went on to forge a medical report of Kubwa General Hospital, claiming to be ill only for the hospital to deny ever issuing the report.”

Shaibu urged his fellow citizens to reflect on the fact that Fani-Kayode had been the APC’s most prominent critic up until last year.