Atiku Abubakar, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Presidential Candidate, has slammed the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its presidential candidate for interfering in PDP internal affairs.
On Friday, Atiku responded to the APC Presidential campaign’s claim that Atiku’s ambition was tearing the PDP apart through his Media Adviser, Mazi Paul Ibe, in Abuja.
Bayo Onanuga, the Director of Media and Publicity for the APC Presidential Campaign Council, stated that Atiku’s presidential ambition has ended.
He wrote, “Once again, another bid for the presidency of our country by former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar is slipping away. This is unraveling before our very eyes even before the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) blows the whistle for electioneering campaign. His party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is in disarray. The signs are just too ominous for the Waziri what with the report by the Economic Intelligence Unit predicting another trashing for him in the forthcoming polls.”
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Onanuga berated Atiku for refusing to honour the zoning principle, adding that he is now faced with karma.
He stated that the war in the party which is the effect of a fight to finish battle from the faction of Wike has killed any momentum Atiku has built ahead of the election.
Reacting, Atiku said reading through a disingenuous press release by the APC Presidential Campaign Council on issues pertaining to developments within the PDP comes across as a laughable work of an interloper.
He said: “The release is disingenuous because it lacks any merit of a reasonable, intellectual riposte. Rather, it exposes the APC and its presidential candidate as a bunch of busy bodies who, rather than focus on the burden of credibility that continues to dog their campaign, are poking their nose into minor internal issues of the PDP.
“Well, since the APC Presidential Campaign Organization seems to have woken up from their state of hibernation, it is good to remind them that there are pending questions about the social and educational history of their candidate that Nigerians want answers to.
“We shall be kind enough to remind the APC that when, in the next few days, campaigns begin in earnest, Nigerians will require answers to some weighty character questions about their candidate and, rather than expend precious time on what is never their business, should use the remaining few days judiciously.
“Secondly, whatever is happening in the PDP is a conversation among leaders of the party and that, in itself, is a reflection of the PDP, as a living and engaging political party. The conversation in the PDP is all about consensus building, which in itself is a major ingredient for peace and unity.
“The PDP, as a truly democratic party, understands that democracy is a lively concept because it allows for people to express their opinions and, it is within that understanding that everyone becomes part of the process.
“The same, of course, cannot be said of the APC where what exists is at best graveyard peace. It is on record that in the seven years and more that the APC has been in power and with the attendant hardship that the party has foisted on the ordinary people of Nigeria, the candidate of the APC, former governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu had not for one single time stood on the side of the people.
“And, that is so for the obvious reason that the presidential candidate of the APC considers his poorly conceived presidential ambition more important than the adversity that his party has unleashed on a vast majority of Nigerians. We wish to remind the APC that its presidential candidate has to own the failures of the party in the last seven plus years. He should also know that Nigerians will not reward their failure with nothing less than a resounding loss in the election.”
The Atiku campaign also said, “Tinubu and the APC ma lu’le!
According to Atiku, it is important to let Tinubu and his paid agents know that what obtains in the PDP is not the mundane stoicism that the APC is known for.
“Indeed, the presidential candidate of the PDP, Atiku Abubakar has established credibility before the masses of this country that he is one patriot who can be counted on to stand by the side of the people – even when the times are hard.
“Atiku is a democrat to the core and that is evident in the way that he continues to carry on with the responsibility of ensuring that the PDP rescues Nigeria from the stranglehold of the APC in the next year’s general election,” the statement reads.
