Former Vice President and presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the 2023 elections Atiku Abubakar says he has no other agenda but to serve Nigerians.
He spoke in Yola, Adamawa State, yesterday at an event where thousands of supporters of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state decamped to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
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Atiku, who was received by a mammoth crowd at the Mahmud Ribadu Square in Yola, said he would address the challenges facing Nigeria if elected.
It was the first time he was returning to his hometown after emerging as the candidate of the PDP for the 2023 presidential election.
Atiku urged the electorate in Adamawa State to consolidate on the support given to him throughout his 30-year political career.
He also called on party members to united and work together.
Meanwhile, National Chairman, PDP, Dr Iyorchia Ayu, has said he will not step down despite pressure on him to do so.
Ayu is said to be under pressure to step down as part of the condition to settle the rift between the party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, and Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike.
Atiku and Wike have been at loggerheads since the completion of the presidential primary of the party and the nomination of Delta State Governor, Ifeanyi Okowa, as the vice presidential candidate.
But Ayu said he had not resigned and has no plan to do so, noting that he was ready to lead the party to victory in 2023.
“We restate, therefore, that the PDP National Chairman, Dr Iyorchia Ayu, has not resigned and has no plan of resigning. For clarity and emphasis, he was elected for a tenure of four years,” Ayu’s media aide, Simon Imobo-Tswam, said in a statement yesterday.
The spokesman of the PDP, Hon Debo Ologunagba, denied knowledge of any condition from Wike’s camp asking the national chairman to step down.
By Baba Martins & Kabiru R. Anwar, Yola