The presidential candidate of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), in the just concluded presidential election, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has stated that, should he have stayed in the party, he would have chosen Peter Obi, his rival in the Labour Party, as his running mate.
The former Vice President made the disclosure during a global press conference on Thursday March 2nd 2023.
He claims that Obi quit the PDP in 2022 as it became clear that he would not receive the party’s nomination.
He claimed that his decision to support Delta State Governor Ifeanyi Okowa was made as part of his promise to running a balanced ticket in Obi’s place.
“If Obi had been a PDP member, I would have chosen him again as my running mate. But I can’t stop him; he’s gone to join Labour.
“Certainly, he received the majority of our votes in the South East and South South states, but without the North, he won’t become president.
Remember that Atiku chose Obi as his running partner in the 2019 presidential election? They lost the election to President Muhammadu Buhari, who is now running for re-election.
Remember that the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Bola Tinubu, was declared the victor of the poll by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), which conducted the presidential and National Assembly elections on Saturday, February 25.
After receiving 8,794,726 votes, INEC declared the former governor of Lagos State the victor of the election.
In the International Collation Center in Abuja in the wee hours of Wednesday, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, the chairman of INEC, declared Tinubu the winner.
In 12 of Nigeria’s 36 states, the former governor of Lagos State won the most votes (8,794,726) and also won by sizable margins in a number of other states.
His closest challenger, former vice president and PDP candidate Atiku Abubakar, received roughly two million less votes than him.
Atiku, 76, who has already made six attempts to win the president, received 6,984,520 votes, while Peter Obi, the Labour Party’s (LP) nominee, who in less than a year galvanized youthful voters in a way that some have called unprecedented, came in second with 6,101,533.
Credit: Coastal Times
