Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, returned to Nigeria on Sunday after about two weeks in Dubai, where among other things, he went to strategise ahead of the 2019 presidential election.
The private jet that conveyed him landed at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, at about 1.30 a.m.
He was, however, subjected to a thorough search by a special security squad.
The squad, it was gathered, was made up of officers of the Nigerian Army, Police, Custom and Immigration.
Nothing was, however, said to be found incriminating in his plane and on him.
Atiku confirmed the report on his twitter handle, claiming that the search was aimed at intimidating him.
His tweet reads: “I arrived to Abuja this morning to a search by agents of the state, aimed at intimidating me and my staff.
“I am committed to building a Nigeria where no citizen is intimidated by agents of state who are paid to protect them.”
It would be recalled that Atiku’s meeting in Dubai was the subject of controversy in the country.
The National Leader of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, had dismissed it as a waste of time when reporters asked for his opinion.
Tinubu who spoke shortly after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja said his party was not afraid of the moves by the PDP and Atiku.
His words: “We don’t fear. Whether it is in the jungle, or it is in Dubai or it is in Abu Dhabi, people are free to meet and strategise in any way they want but we are not going back to the illusion of the PDP.
“It is not possible, Nigerians will not do that. They say slow and steady wins the race. We inherited that from our forefathers and knowledgeable people. We can’t go back to the pit that we inherited for 16 years. They can strategise from anywhere but a leopard cannot change it skin.”
