PDP campaign council: No presidential candidate will defeat Atiku in south-east

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential campaign council (PCC) says Atiku Abubakar will get more votes in the south-east geopolitical zone than any other candidate.

Charles Aniagwu, spokesperson of the party’s PCC, spoke on Sunday in an interview with Arise Television.

Aniagwu said the people in the south-east trust Abubakar to tackle the challenges confronting the geopolitical zone.

“Atiku will win the votes of the south-east because the people believe that he has got the ability to be able to bring a number of the things that they are asking for at the moment and that indeed he will become a stepping stone for our brothers and sisters in the south-east to be able to clinch the number one position in the country,” he said.

“Atiku will win fair and square because of his acceptability across the length and breadth of this country. He is not looking for 23 percent in any of these states.”

According to Aniagwu, Abubakar will defeat other presidential candidates in the south-east, including those who hail from the geopolitical zone.

“That a man comes from somewhere does not mean that he may not be defeated and I may need to take you back to 1992 and if you could recall Bashir Tofa and Moshood Abiola. Tofa from Kano and Abiola from Ogun state in the south-west but Abiola defeated him in Kano,” he said.

“So that a man is from a place does not mean that the place will automatically be for him. So, I would not want us to be intimidated by the fact that somebody is from somewhere.

“Atiku is not just speaking and making promises, his chances both in the south-east and elsewhere in the country are far brighter than even the northern star and that is on the basis of his pedigree in time past.

“You will recall that between 1999 and 2007, Atiku and Obasanjo held sway in this country and their records are there for everyone to see. Atiku is not just talking because he has the ability to search for talents irrespective of where they are from.

“Dr Okonjo Iweala and Professor Chukwuma Soludo who served as minister of finance and governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) were discovered by Atiku and they made a great impact during their tenure.”

Aniagwu added that if elected, Abubakar will dialogue with the secessionist group in the south-east to address their grievances.

“Atiku has made it very clear that he is going to discuss with both state and non-state actors and the crisis in the south-east is basically from non-state actors. Some people see them as agitators while others see them as militants but Atiku will not be involved in labelling. He will discuss the issues with them and good enough some of the problems are already known to him,” he said.

The PCC spokesperson said Atiku will address issues of underdevelopment and marginalisation “to ensure that every Nigerian irrespective of where you are from is going to be brought on the decision table”.