Build ups to the 2011 presidential election have started assuming some interesting dimension following accusations and counter accusations by supporters of both President Goodluck Jonathan and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar on alleged plagiarism of Atiku’s campaign manifesto.
A group under the aegis of Concerned Patriots fired the salvo when it alleged that the manifesto unveiled by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar for his presidential campaign was a plagiarised document.
But Atiku, in his reaction through his campaign organisation, denied this, declaring that the Pro- Jonathan campaign group which accused it of plagiarism was out to mislead the public in its desperate quest to benefit from the $50,000 per group bazaar in the Presidential Villa.
The group, which addressed the media in Abuja through Oghogho Garrick and Kenny Okohigbo, called on Nigerians to be wary of the antics of the former vice president on his campaign promises, insisting that he had copied from a position paper earlier prepared by Senator David Dafinone on how to revamp the nation’s economy.
The group said the senator prepared the document and submitted it to the government in 2007 ahead of the general elections held that the year.
It hinted of its resolve to write the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on the development with advice to investigate the allegation against Atiku and prevent him from being screened as a presidential aspirant if found guilty.
The group alleged that Atiku copied the document without credits to the author, just as he exercised no caution in launching it as his original idea.
Against this background, the group issued a seven-day ultimatum to the former vice president after which they said they would proceed to the court to file an action against him.
However, the Atiku campaign organisation, in a statement made available to Saturday Tribune, affirmed that its policy document on power and energy was not only original; “it is indeed the man who was credited with the original work that plagiarised the Atiku policy document.”
“It is public knowledge that Atiku formulated his policy document after series of studies and consultations culminating in a retreat of 150 Nigerian scholars, professionals, experts and critics from all walks of life in June, 2006, the publication which the pro-Jonathan campaign group said is the original document published widely on the internet and newspapers including the Punch and Independent,” the campaign organisation said.
“We are certain that the pro-Jonathan campaign group knows the difference between 2006 and 2010 and that a publication of 2006 could not have plagiarized a work of 2010,” it said.
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