Presidential spokesman, Doyin Okupe, has dismissed the new alliance of Nigeria’s major opposition political parties under the aegis of the All Progressives Alliance (APC) as “mega nonsense, which cannot go anywhere” but would collapse very soon.

Okupe said, “Members of APC are united and have been brought together not because they want to help Nigeria in any form. They have come together because they just want power for personal aggrandizement,” Okupe said yesterday during an interview with Liberty Radio in Kaduna, North-West Nigeria.

He also hit out hard at APC chieftain, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, saying it was ludicrous of him to condemn President Goodluck Jonathan’s call on the American and British governments to help Nigeria stop oil theft.

His words: “The President did not just wake up one day and say Britain and America should help us. It was just one of the various internal steps that were taken. There were funds given to the Navy to acquire boats, and they are already producing results. It is just like smuggling, you make a law, you empower the Customs to impound goods at the point of entry, and also ban sale of such products in the stores.

“So, what government has done is it to stop this oil theft at our end and if they escape checks and balances that we put in place, if those people don’t buy from them, then, they will stop. So, why is El-Rufai pretending to be stupid?

“I just told you, it is right that you guys gave a platform to El-Rufai; he is a free man, he is a citizen of Nigeria, but he is not a man that is worthy of any serious comment. He just says whatever he likes.

“It is a pity that you have chosen me to respond to Malam El-Rufai’s statements. El-Rufai is a name that is disgraceful in my mouth, but I will try to respond. El-Rufai is a liar, who went to the extent of writing a book that is full of lies, similes, things that are untrue, half truths; he will now quote three pages of discussions with people when he did not record them, and these are things that happened six to seven years ago. So, when I say he is a liar, I mean it.”

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