26th September, 2019
A political group has said that former All Progressives Congress, APC, Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Timi Frank, is a hireling of Peoples Democratic Party presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar.
The Initiative to Save Democracy (ISD), in a press statement signed by Oladele Peter, Publicity Secretary of the group on Thursday in Lagos said it had pictorial evidence to prove that Mr. Frank is doing the bidding of his paymasters.
Frank, a self-styled political activist came under fire on Wednesday night following a retraction by a national daily, Vanguard Newspaper of a libelous statement made by him against Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.
He said Frank is working for the opposition and its presidential candidate, Atiku. He explained that more evidences were emerging of their transaction, including a meeting in Dubai where the plan was hatched.
“The picture is clearer now, Mr. Frank, a renegade and castaway from APC is doing the bidding of his master but legal actions will put all his toothless claims to rest.
“As Nigerians, we have allowed fake news to fester for too long and that has to stop, we need to check fake news through all legal means possible and that is why I am happy that the Vice President has taken this route,” he said.
He said a source within the new strategies adopted by the PDP’s presidential candidate to boost his desperate quest to upturn the electoral victory of President Muhammadu Buhari through the Supreme Court co-opted Frank.
“The young man’s campaign of calumny against the Vice President is deliberate and the aim is to discredit APC in order to whip up public sentiments for Atiku. I tell you the point-by-point dismissal of his (Atiku’s) petition by the election petition tribunal has devastated them.
“Really, the judgment by the tribunal thoroughly exposed them as frivolous in thinking. Now, they believe the only way they can help their case is by raking up mud against a principal officer of the Buhari government in order to look good at the Supreme Court.”
Frank was said to have started life as “a political jobber in Bayelsa during the administration of D. S. P. Alamiesiegha with reputation for doing any dirty job.”
At the founding of All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2014, the Bayelsa-born jobber was nominated and sponsored to become the deputy Publicity Secretary of the party by Atiku.
Soon afterwards, he was said to have revealed himself as “divisive influence” who delighted in working against party’s interest and opposing popular views at party meetings “just to attract attention to himself”.
His real agenda became clearer when he started issuing unauthorized statements as APC’s deputy publicity secretary to the embarrassment of the leadership of Chief John Odigie-Oyegun and became a willing tool in the sustained campaign to discredit the party and shove Oyegun aside.
Expectedly, he joined the bandwagon of Atiku when the latter eventually decamped from APC last year to vie for the presidency on PDP’s platform.
“Timi Frank will be used as an example, if the Vice President does not press libel charges, the Initiative to Save Democracy will do it, we need sanity in our country and we don’t need fake news that will divide us,” he said.