Leyoo Ajeokun
The candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP , during the 2023 presidential elections Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has been absolved from blame of the electoral loss that befell the party during the general election at the center.
The submission was given by Dr Emeka Kalu, the Director-General, Global Initiatives for Good Governance (GIGG), in a statement released in Lagos. He said those attacking Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the former Vice President of Nigeria are political detractors.
Recall Mr. Kola Ologbodiyan, the immediate past National Publicity Secretary of PDP and Chief Olabode George, a chieftain of the party had accused Atiku as being responsible for PDP recent failures .
Also Primate Elijah Ayodele, the Leader of the INRI Evangelical Spiritual Church has predicted that PDP would lose the 2027 Presidential election if it fielded Atiku as its flagbearer.
According to Dr Emeka Kalu: “Holistically, it is defamatory to be meaninglessly antagonising a respected national leader whose antecedents have ever remained befitting, especially in touching the lives of the masses.
“As a sagacious and resilient leader, Atiku Abubakar has been intentional in re-jiging the collapsing socio-political economic structures of the nation when elected the next President and it remains one of his continued points of National Transformation Agenda towards healing the wounds of APC’s lopsided governance in the country.
“So saddening that those who fed from the political pot of Waziri Adamawa to become relevant in the political society have chosen to denigrate his personality simply to please Atiku’s enemies.
“A former and the immediate National Publicity Secretary of the People’s Democratic Party, Kola Ologbodian got the impetus to have addressed Atiku as a man of deceit who is ready to sacrifice his entire family to become the President. What a treachery! In the same vein, Chief Olabode George recently cited that the PDP lost the 2023 Presidential election because Atiku was the candidate.”
He also queried how Atiku’s candidacy in the 2023 presidential election denied PDP victory despite the obvious electoral malpractices, which marred the polls.
The GIGG Director-General, declared that the attacks on the personality of Atiku amounted to a hatchet job, crookedly organised and a ploy to weaken the political platform of the former Vice President.
He also said that the current economic conundrum could only be upturned through Atiku’s Presidency, adding that he remained the only seasoned national leader with the ability to return Nigeria to the forefront of infrastructural development and national security, considering his wealth of experience in public administration and politics.
“I hereby demand that this misguided, badly conceived and politically motivated character destruction is henceforth retracted, else our legal department would not hesitate to sue the defaulters on personality assassination, misrepresentation of facts and defamation of character”, Kalu threatened
“In conclusion, I hereby sternly warn that Atiku Abubakar be addressed with honour and his reputations must not be ruined nor debased,” he said.