By Amuda Dan Sulaiman Fab
The Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar on Thursday lamented that Peter Obi of the Labour Party ruined his chances of winning the South East and South South in the just concluded presidential election in Nigeria.
Asiwaju Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) won the election and has been declared President-elect.
South East and South South used to be Atiku’s strong base and he lost most of them to Obi, with the exception of Akwa Ibom and Bayelsa.
Addressing a live news conference on Channels TV, Atiku admitted that Obi ruined his chances in the two region, but said that could not have made him to be president.
Atiku was asked if Obi’s leaving PDP affected his chances in the two region and he said: “I agreed that it is a fact that he took our votes in the South-East and South-South and that of course would not make him a president.
“You all know that to be a president of this country, you all need votes from every part of the country.”
He also said the PDP is opened to dialogue with Obi.
“So, as far as I am concerned, Peter is welcome to dialogue with the PDP. We are ready to dialogue with him. I don’t think we will have a problem if he wants to dialogue with the PDP, whether for an alliance or not,” h said.
He also said at the time Obi decided to leave the PDP for the Labour Party, his party had not really begun its primary process,” saying that the the question of whether he was going to get a ticket or not did not arise.
Atiku, on whether he had confidence in the judiciary to give him the victory if he goes to the court said if it were in the past, he believed it would happen and cast aspersion on the present judiciary.
“You must remember, I took my boss, a sitting president to court eleven times from trial court to supreme court. I swear I never gave money and yet I got judgement. Do you think it is possible today? Let us tell ourselves the truth. I cannot say whether it is the same judiciary until I test them,” he added.
