Kassim Afegbua, a former Edo state commissioner for information, has stated that former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, should not be “trusted” with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential ticket ahead of the 2023 General election. ayokinews.com reports
Afegbua, the presidential campaign spokesperson for Atiku Abubakar in the 2019 election, made this known while responding to a remark made by Atiku concerning the party’s presidential ticket.
Atiku expressed his confidence in winning the PDP presidential nomination after a Saturday visit to former President Olusegun Obasanjo in Sango-Ota, Ogun state.
Afegbua said in a statement released on Sunday, that the opposition party cannot “afford the error” of backing Atiku, who “abandoned” the party after losing the presidential election in 2019.
In his opinion, Afegbua recommended that the former Vice President abandon his presidential bid in favor of a younger candidate from the country’s south.
“I read with dismay the statement credited to former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar where he boasted that he would always get the presidential ticket of the Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP,” the statement reads.
“At a time when the former Vice President should be working towards strengthening the structures of the party for more electoral victories, the only thing that bothers him is all about his selfish aspiration.”
2023: I Have No Ambition, I’ll Support Any Southern Candidate – El-Rufai
“It was only in 2019 that Alhaji Atiku Abubakar emerged as the candidate of the PDP at the PortHarcourt convention when it was decided by the Southern aspirants to allow an all-northern aspirants to contest the primary election. So the claim that “I will always get the ticket of the PDP”, flies in the face of logic, fact and reality.”
“We cannot afford the mistake of 2019 when Alhaji Abubakar abandoned all his foot-soldiers and sought refuge in faraway Dubai. A true political General ought to secure his troops and return them to the barracks after the war to carry out critical assessment before knowing the next step.”
“Rather than borrow a leaf from the Ukrainian President Zelensky, who has been standing by his Ukrainian nationals, to the extent of carrying AK-47 to the battlefront to secure his country from Russian invasion, Alhaji Abubakar ran away to Dubai and exposed all of us to the threats and intimidation of the monstrous APC in 2019.”
“Such a leader cannot be trusted with the responsibility of representing our aggregate interest in the struggle for 2023. No amount of closed-door meetings with former leaders can change the oscillation of the political pendulum in 2023.”
“No past president will endorse an Atiku presidency, at a time when they have all talked loudly about fielding a younger President in 2023,” Afegbua stated, adding that Atiku is being tricked.
