Wilson Adekumola
The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the just concluded elections, Atiku Abubakar has disclosed that he would have picked Peter Obi of the Labour Party again as his running mate if he had not left the party, saying he took PDP votes in the South and lost the presidency without the North.
Atiku made this known on Thursday during a world press conference on the 2023 presidential election.
According to Vanguard, He said Obi left PDP in 2022 when he observed that he won’t get the party’s ticket. He said his choice of Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State was part of his commitment for a balanced ticket after Obi’s exit.
“I would have picked Obi again as my running mate if he was in PDP. But he left for Labour and I can’t stop him. Yes, he took most of our votes in the South East and South South states but that won’t make him president without the North.”
Recall that Obi was running mate to Atiku in the 2019 presidential election. They lost the election to President Muhammadu Buhari who won then seeking a second term in office.
The Independent National Electoral Commission on Saturday, February 25, conducted the presidential and National Assembly elections and, subsequently, declared the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Bola Tinubu, winner of the election.
INEC declared the former Lagos State Governor winner of the election after he polled 8,794,726 votes.
The INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, announced Tinubu as the winner at the International Collation Centre in Abuja, during the early hours of Wednesday.
The former Senator came out tops in 12 of Nigeria’s 36 states, and polled a total numbers in several other states to claim the highest number of votes — 8,794,726.
By calculation, almost two million votes more than his closest rival, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar of the PDP.
The 76-year old Atiku who has now run for presidency six times, got 6,984,520 votes, while the candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, who, in less than a year, gathering youths in a manner some have described as exceptional ended the race with 6,101,533.