‘They are not part of us’ — pro-Buhari group dissociates self from Atiku supporters

An All Progressives Congress (APC) support group under the aegis of Buhari Osinbajo Solidarity Front (BOSF) has distanced itself from support groups that recently joined the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

On Thursday, a coalition of support groups tagged the “Buhari-Yemi Osinbajo Nationwide Supporters Group” announced its defection from the APC, and apologised to Nigerians for “installing an administration which has brought so much anguish”.

The group declared its support for Atiku Abubakar, the PDP’s presidential candidate.

Reacting to the defection in a statement signed by Ado Baba, its national chairperson, BOSF described the defectors as “pretenders and political carpet beggars”.

It added that the actions of the defectors are “misguided and solely for their selfish interests” and “do not represent the true loyalty and support that both the President and the Vice President enjoy across this country”.

“The Buhari Osinbajo Solidarity Front (BOSF) wishes to condemn and correct the recent actions of some groups that claimed to be loyal to President Muhammadu Buhari and the Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, SAN,” the statement reads.

“We categorically state that the recent defection of these groups from the All Progressives Congress (APC) and their subsequent apology to Nigerians do not in any way represent the views of the real support groups that are genuinely loyal to both the President and the VP.

“Their claims are therefore untrue and baseless.

“At any rate, what is the motive behind their desperate clinging to the names of the President and Vice President in their political gamble if not crass opportunism and shameless anticipation? A genuine approach would have been the exercise of their free will in making their political choices even if at the 11th hour without the names of Buhari and Osinbajo. These so-called groups could have simply adopted the names of their preferred candidate in their new adventure.

“We wish to make it clear that the actions of these groups are not only misguided and solely for their selfish interests, but also unfortunate, as they do not reflect the true spirit and aspirations of President Muhammadu Buhari and the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo.

“We urge Nigerians to disregard the actions of these groups, as they do not represent the true loyalty and support that both the President and the Vice President enjoy across this country.

“Supporters of the Buhari/Osinbajo presidency have no need to apologise or dump the All Progressives Congress. As the VP said recently when he represented the President at the presentation of the PMB Legacy Portal, the millions of beneficiaries of several people-friendly schemes of the administration such as the Social Investment Programmes (SIP), among others, ‘are real people provided with a springboard to do more for themselves and for their communities; real people inspired to hope and believe that Nigeria can be positively transformed in our lifetime’.

“Here as stated above is where we stand. Well-meaning Nigerians should continue to ignore pretenders and political carpet beggars, whatever names they call themselves.”