The rumour has been circulating on the social media since Thursday, after the leadership of APGA reversed an earlier statement and announced that the party would field a presidential candidate from the north in the 2019 general election. The rumour peddlers (or mischief makers) went to town with the “news”: former vice president Atiku Abubakar will fly the APGA flag with former CBN governor Prof. Chukwuma Soludo as running mate.
When Eyeway contacted Atiku’s campaign office early Sunday morning, it learned that the story was fake and aimed at discrediting Atiku. The suspects? They are in the APC and PDP, said a source. “The idea is to bring him down even before the contest.”
The campaign office was forced to issue a press release Sunday evening. It reads:
Abuja, Nigeria, 26 August, 2018: The campaign office of former Vice President of Nigeria Atiku Abubakar debunks the story from a section of the media that the frontline presidential aspirant for the 2019 election, Atiku, has defected from the PDP.
A press statement on Sunday describes the report as a malicious attempt to confuse the public about the aspiration of Atiku ahead of the forthcoming presidential primaries of the PDP.
For the avoidance of any doubts, Atiku remains the frontline aspirant for the presidential ticket of the PDP.
In the past two months, Atiku Abubakar has moved across states in the country, consulting with stakeholders of the PDP and explaining to them his agenda encapsulated in the acronym JOBS: Jobs, Opportunity, Being united and Security for Nigeria. The nationwide consultations continue this week with visits to the south-west, north-west and north-central zones of the country.
Atiku’s passion and commitment to winning the PDP primaries is without any compromise and to assume that he will abandon the hard work he has done with the positive results he is getting from the stakeholders of the party is to say the least preposterous and unthinkable.
The Campaign calls on supporters of Atiku to remain steadfast and see the contrived news of defection as an attempt to distract it from the set task of winning the PDP ticket and the 2019 presidential election by the grace of God.
