By-election: Reject APC, vote for PDP candidates, Atiku appeals to Nigerians

Atiku Abubakar, a former vice-president, has asked Nigerians to vote for candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the February 3 rerun and by-elections.

Elections will be held in 575 registration areas and 8,934 polling units on Saturday.

In a statement on Thursday, the presidential flagbearer of the PDP in the 2023 elections, urged voters to reject all candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

“It is my appeal to voters in the Ebonyi South senatorial district to give their unalloyed support to Barrister Silas Onu and, by so doing, vote for the Peoples Democratic Party in Saturday’s by-election,” the statement reads.

“The people of Ebonyi South Senatorial District, the Senate and indeed Nigeria stand to gain from Silas Onu’s multiple set skills and the vibrancy of his youth.

“My appeal goes beyond Ebonyi State and connects with voters in all the 35 constituencies and nine states affected by court-ordered by-elections.

“I do hope that voters in these states, which include Ebonyi, Yobe, Borno, Kaduna, Benue, Ondo, Taraba, Lagos and Kebbi, shall make a bold statement in the forthcoming election by putting a stamp of rejection on the ruling All Progressives Congress for having made insecurity and impoverishment a policy of the state in all the affected polling units.

“Our country stands at the cusp of a new beginning, and the decisions that voters in the elections on Saturday shall make will determine how ready we are, as a people, to provoke the march to economic and national recovery.”

While calling for peaceful elections, Abubakar asked the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to use the opportunity of the rerun to “redeem itself” from the failings of the 2023 elections.