The All Progressives Congress has advised the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar to relocate to Dubai instead of wasting time to challenge the results of the February 25 presidential election in court.
This was contained in a statement entitled “Immediate Response By Tinubu/ Shettima Presidential Campaign Council To The Press Conference By Alhaji Atiku Abubakar “ and signed by its Director of Public Affairs and Chief Spokesperson, Mr. Festus Keyamo (SAN).
The statement says, “Atiku Abubakar should quit being delusional: He destroyed his own party and reaped the full consequence of his indiscretion”.
It reads, “Following his successive failures and rejection by Nigerians in different elections, it should be clear to him by now that he is simply UNELECTABLE. The expositions relating his self-confessed mode of syphoning public funds whilst in office through SPVs further dented his aspiration before Nigerians.”
However, the APC council said that it would be ready to meet Atiku in court, adding, “We are prepared to meet his challenge, no matter the nature of the challenge, anywhere and anytime.”
It said, “If ATIKU Abubakar is not embracing the olive branch extended to him and other losers in the 2023 elections by the President-elect, ASIWAJU Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the least he can do is to quietly relocate to Dubai which has become his traditional home base.”
The statement asked Atiku to be thankful that he even exceeded expectations in the elections by coming second despite distractions and fractured party with which he campaigned.
It said Atiku must have sensed before hand that he was headed for a humiliating defeat that should have put him a distant third or fourth in the elections.
“His performance was therefore the best he could achieve,” he said.
The statement reads in part, “In the typical fashion of the last kick of a dying horse, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar this evening addressed the Press and claimed that the 2023 Presidential Election was neither free nor fair. He made this bogus claim without providing a shred of evidence, except to trumpet the noise made by his supporters on social media. He also went ahead to make unfounded derogatory comments about the person of the President-elect, ASIWAJU Bola Ahmed Tinubu in obvious bitterness and frustration.
Firstly, Atiku Abubakar breached the zoning principle within his own party by insisting on running for President when that was clearly against the mood of the nation; even after emerging as a candidate, the PDP itself continued to rub insult on the faces of southern leaders in the Party by insisting on keeping the position of National Chairman in the North. This obviously led to the rebellion of the G5 Governors and their subsequent sabotage of the PDP before the polls and at the polls by campaigning against ATIKU’S candidature. His failure to unite his party and manage this post-primaries fall-out was his eventual undoing.
ATIKU’S bid for the Presidency this time around was dead on arrival when his inordinate ambition fractured his party into three parts, with Alhaji Rabiu Kwankwanso and Mr. Peter Obi breaking away to the NNPP and the Labour Party respectively. The massive loss he suffered in traditional PDP zones and States is a clear testament to this. One wonders, then, how he expected to have won the election. It is also comical to see that he claims victory at the polls together with Mr. Peter Obi with whom his party has been holding Press Conferences.
Nigerians have since seen through the ambition of ATIKU Abubakar that it is merely self-serving. Hence, he has run for Presidency at every point in time in the last 30 years, irrespective of the zoning tilt of the nation. Following his successive failures and rejection by Nigerians in different elections, it should be clear to him by now that he is simply UNELECTABLE. The expositions relating his self-confessed mode of syphoning public funds whilst in office through SPVs further dented his aspiration before Nigerians.”
