Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), says the party is open to forming an alliance with the Labour Party (LP).
Abubakar spoke on Thursday at a press conference in Abuja.
The former vice-president admitted that the PDP lost a considerable number of votes to Peter Obi, the LP presidential candidate in Saturday’s election.
“It is a fact that he took our votes from the south-east and the south-south — that of course would not make him a president,” he said.
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“You all know that to be a president in this country you all need votes from everywhere. So as far as I am concerned, Peter is welcome to dialogue with PDP — we are ready to dialogue with him.
“I don’t think we will have any problem if he wants to dialogue with PDP — either form an alliance or not.”
Abubakar said Obi left the party and joined the LP after governors in the PDP insisted that someone among them must be the standard-bearer, and vice presidential candidate.
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He said instead of leaving the party, he “stood and fought the governors” and won the party’s presidential ticket.
“I think Peter was in a rush (to leave),” he said.
“Peter got scared and left. I did not get scared. I stood up against the governors.
“When we formed the PDP some of them (PDP governors) were perhaps in secondary schools or the university.
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“So if he (Obi) was there, nothing could have stopped him from becoming a running mate because I had the right to choose whoever I wanted to choose as my running mate.”
On Wednesday, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Tinubu as the winner of the election and also issued him a certificate of return.
Mahmood Yakubu, chairman of the INEC, said Tinubu secured 8,794,726 votes.
Abubakar had the second-highest figure with 6,984,520 votes, while Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) was next with 6,101,533 votes.
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Both the PDP and LP have rejected the results and vowed to challenge the election in court.
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