The Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the February 25 election in the country, Atiku Abubakar has said that his counterpart in the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi ran away from the PDP at the time the governors in the party vowed to choose one of them for the Presidency.
According to him, at meetings of the leaders of the party last year when preparation for the primary was in top gear, the governors insisted that they would produce amongst themselves, Presidential, Vice Presidential candidates and the post of Chief of Staff.
Atiku, who was answering reporters’ questions at the world press conference on the outcome of the Presidential election, said: “Peter Obi, seeing that he would have nothing to fall back on after the 2023 elections, ran away to join the Labour Party.
“But I remained in the party and fought the governors to win the primary of the party, ahead of the 2023 Presidential election.”
The PDP flag bearer said that if Obi had remained like him, he would probably have picked him as running mate with plan to fully supporting him to succeed him after his tenure.
He said that he picked Igbos as his running mates in the two previous contests he ran, adding that he had always looked for a chance to create workable opportunity for Igbo to be President in no distant future.
Atiku agreed that Peter Obi wounded his ambition in the 2023 election by taking over the Southeast and South South votes that were traditionally his, but insisted that the two of them would have been winners now, if they had combined forces.
