The political relationship between former Vice-President, Atiku Abubakar and incumbent President, Muhammadu Buhari is getting messier each passing day, as Atiku who failed the 2019 general election is in the tribunal to contest the election.

The two top Nigerian politicians, who are Fulani indigenes, are now running cat and dog as a result of some disagreements in the political arena.

Recently, the Presidency cried out that there was a call for the Nigerian military to overthrow the present government led by All Progressives Congress (APC), with President Buhari at the helm of affairs.

But the military dissociated itself from the allegation saying, the document in circulation advocated the setting up of an interim government.

The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC), yesterday described as “unacceptable, irritating, preposterous and ludicrous for anybody or group of people to call for military coup d’état in the country.

Although the allegation was only gathering momentum in the social media, MURIC said: “It is an invitation to anarchy. We warn that any attempt at a coup will be resisted by the Nigerian people. We refuse to be led into economic slavery once again. We will rather live as free men and women in our graves than live as paupers and slaves in our own land,” the group explained.

Muslim Rights Concern, MURIC, has described as unacceptable, irritating, preposterous and ludicrous for anybody or group of people to call for military coup d’état in the country.

The Nigerian military recently dissociated itself from a document calling for dissolution of the current administration. According to the report, the document is currently being circulated within the country, the document also advocated for the setting up of an interim government.

Founder and Director of the group, Professor Ishaq Akintola, described the alleged document as “illegal and provocative.

“This is unacceptable. It is irritating, preposterous and ludicrous. How can any sane individual or group be calling for a military coup d’etat in 21 century Nigeria? It is anachronistic. We have no doubt that it is the handiwork of unpatriotic and unscrupulous elements.

‘They will fail. They will fail because the Nigerian people are solidly behind President Muhammadu Buhari who has inspired Nigerians and the latter have taken the cue. Nigerians have seen transparency, probity and accountability under Buhari. Modern trains are all over the place. Our roads are taking shape again. Public office holders no longer act with impunity. There is no financial recklessness in governance. There is no going back to corruption. It is dead. The corpse of corruption is in the mortuary. What remains is its burial and that will come very soon.”

MURIC commended the military for speaking out against the move, saying, “We charge the Nigerian people to reject hypocrites and parasites who are aiming to dismantle our nascent democracy. It is an invitation to anarchy”.

In what appears as strained relationship, Atiku, who contested the election under the platform of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the February 23 general election, alleged plan by the Federal Government led by Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC) to replay the phantom coup plot of late General Sani Abacha where he falsely accused and jailed former President Olusegun Obasanjo for treason.

Reports said Atiku reacted to a statement by the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, where he accused him (Atiku) and the PDP of plot to destabilize the Federal Government.

Sequel to this, Atiku’s media adviser, Paul Ibe, in a statement, said in his desperation to remain in office, “President Buhari wants to rope him in a phantom coup plot.

“We want to know why the desperation on the part of the Muhammadu Buhari government to rope in the PDP and its Presidential candidate in phantom plots? Obviously, President Buhari wants to replay the phantom coup plot saga of his now deceased mentor, who threw former President Olusegun Obasanjo in jail after falsely accusing him of treason in order to perpetuate himself in power.

“Could it be that they are now aware that the electoral fraud they perpetrated during the last presidential election is about to be exposed beyond a shadow of a doubt?” The former vice president wondered. He noted that if there is anybody beating the drums of war, it is the APC leaders, whom he said issued statements threatening Nigerians and foreigners alike with ‘body bags’.

Atiku described himself as a “thorough bred democrat,” noting that he joined forces with the likes of Chief Moshood Abiola and Dr. Alex Ekwueme to resist Abacha’s dictatorship and fought for the democracy Buhari and APC were allegedly trampling on.

“For the avoidance of doubt, Atiku Abubakar resisted the Abacha dictatorship, of which President Muhammadu Buhari was a prominent member, and it is his resistance and the sacrifice of his co-travellers, like Chief MKO Abiola and Alex Ekwueme, amongst others, that gave rise to the democracy that the current government is now trampling on.

 “It is preposterous that those who threatened to ‘soak the dog and the baboon in blood’ are now aukardacious enough to point the finger at lifelong democrats.

“Truly, if the farmer does not raise the alarm on time, the thief will accuse him of being a thief,” he said. Atiku further wondered how President Buhari, who “wined and dined with Nigeria’s most brutal dictator,” and “overthrew a democratically elected president and held a grudge against him even in death (as evidenced by the empty condolence register he left in Sokoto, last year) accuse a man who has never been as much as associated with such tendencies, of being an anti-democrat?”

He said the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, was clever by half. Atiku said Nigerians should not take the minister serious, adding, “when we have a situation where even those who employed him know that Lai Mohammed is a liar, who will even lie during the holy month of Ramadan, then why should Nigerians be surprised at this latest lie?”

He advised the minister to face “the cesspool of corruption that has been exposed in his ministry by the investigative website which revealed that Mr. Mohammed’s fingers may be stickier than sticky glue.”