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April 4, 2023
Atiku said he believed that the decision to elect the flag bearer of the PDP in the coming election in Kogi State was the responsibility of electors in the party’s primary election.
The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 general elections, Atiku Abubakar, has said that he has no anointed candidate in the party’s forthcoming Kogi State governorship primary election ahead of the gubernatorial election in the state.
SaharaReporters earlier reported that some elders of the Kogi State chapter of the PDP called on the former Vice President to immediately retract his alleged steps and allow the original delegates list from the 21 local government areas to scale through.
The elders in the statement signed by its leader, Alhaji Ibrahim Dansofo, alleged that while they stood by Atiku in the just concluded general elections, he decided to pay them back by trying to impose Senator Dino Melaye as the party’s governorship candidate in the state against the due process.
But reacting to the allegation, Atiku through his Media Adviser, Paul Ibe, said that he believed that the decision to elect the flag bearer of the PDP in the coming election in Kogi State was the responsibility of electors in the party’s primary election.
The statement made available to newsmen in Abuja on Tuesday read, “The attention of the former Vice President of Nigeria and Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the 2023 election, Atiku Abubakar has been drawn to several media reports insinuating his involvement in the democratic process of electing the gubernatorial flag bearer for the Peoples Democratic Party in the upcoming Kogi State governorship election.
“We wish to state categorically that such media reports are false and gross fabrication.
“Atiku is a consummate democrat and the hallmark of his political struggles has been for the enablement of internal democracy in party politics.
“It is therefore absurd to suggest that Atiku has a preferred candidate in the primary election to produce the governorship candidate of the PDP in the Kogi State election - or in any primary election, for that matter.
“For the avoidance of any doubts, Atiku Abubakar has no anointed candidate in the Kogi State primary election.
“He believes that the decision to elect the flag bearer of the PDP in the coming election in the Confluence State is the responsibility of electors in that primary election.
“He therefore urges anyone amongst the candidates to desist from peddling influence with his name and, indeed, calls on the media not to lay prostrate to any blackmail against him.
“Atiku believes that all the aspirants in the election are up to the task of flying the flag of our great party, the PDP and the electors should be given the unfettered rights to perform their constituted duty of electing the best person for the PDP.”