From Victor Osula, Abuja
Atiku
Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in the 2023 general, Atiku Abubakar has reacted to insinuations that his mission to the United States of America to unravel the authenticity of President Tinubu’s academic records was a mark of betrayal of trust.
Reacting to a question on the issue during his press conference on Tinubu’s Chicago State University records in Abuja on Thursday, Atiku said rather than him, it is Tinubu that should be grateful to him.
He said, ” I disagreed with Tinubu, yes it’s true that we came together in 2007. In Lagos, at the convention, I emerged winner and got the party’s ticket. After I got the ticket, he sent me about five or six senior party men, and they met me and said Bola (Tinubu) wanted to be my running mate.
“I said, gentlemen, you are all old enough, and asked, what would be your reaction to having a Muslim-Muslim ticket?
“They all answered that they objected to it, I then told them they should have told him and that was the end of the political relationship; he (Tinubu) broke away, and supported Umaru Yar’Adua. So what is the ground for him to say I betrayed him?”
He said but for him, the PDP would have swept Lagos State as it did in all the Southwest state governorship poll in 2003.
He said he urged President Olusegun Obasanjo to leave out Lagos because of his old alliance with Tinubu and Obasanjo agreed.
“Those of you who are old enough will also remember that in 2003, the PDP took over all the South-Western states, with the exception of Lagos.
“I stood between Obasanjo and himself (Tinubu) and I said no, you (Obasanjo) can’t take over Lagos. Leave it and Obasanjo left it. So, who is indebted to whom? Is it me or Bola Ahmed Tinubu?
