The Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide – the apex Igbo socio-political organisation – has described the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential primaries that produced former Vice President Atiku Abubakar as its 2023 presidential candidate as corrupt and erratic.
The group, in a statement Sunday by its Secretary-General, Mazi Okechuku Isiguzoro, said it would not give its support to the former vice president in the 2023 general elections.
Ohanaeze said: “It’s amusing that PDP is now a Political party for the Northern region, with Dr. Iyochia Ayu as PDP chair, Walid Jubril as BOT Chair and Atiku Abubakar as 2023 PDP Presidential candidate.
“PDP has fulfilled her threats to sideline the Igbo in 2023 and we will carefully answer back to them.
“Another Northerner, Senator David Mark supervised the process that schemed out Igbo from PDP. The consequences of the 2022 PDP convention will be a discontinuity of milking of Igbo votes by a party that butchered the Igbo’s dream.
“We are waiting for the APC presidential primary to take the final decision on whether or not Igbos will participate in the 2023 elections.
“Atiku Abubakar will be opposed in the South-East, and no Igbo is anticipated to champion or project Atiku Presidency in the East. Nobody is going to take the risk of campaigning for Atiku in the East since the PDP is now a regional northern political party. Atiku will not have Igbo support him in 2023; he cannot be the President of Nigeria in 2023.
“Ndigbo will rise against PDP and Atiku Abubakar as a prize for PDP’s ingratitude and dishonesty against Igbo.”
Work with me, Atiku begs Wike, Saraki, others
Notwithstanding the opposition from the Ohanaeze, Alhaji Abubakar has urged his fellow contestants in the primary election to work with him for the party’s victory.
Abubakar said this Sunday morning in Abuja in his acceptance speech after he was declared the winner of the PDP primary and the party’s candidate.
He described the primary election that produced him as free and a well-fought election, promising to work with the co-aspirants and give them a sense of belonging if elected.
“Let me also use this opportunity to call on my fellow contestants and to assure them that I am ready to cooperate and work with them and give them a sense of belonging in this party and our next government.
“Therefore, my fellow compatriots, I want to appreciate your efforts in deepening our democratic processes in this party. It was a well fought primary election.
“So, I commend you for that and I look forward to working with you very closely. So that together we can build this party to a level where we can take over the government,” Abubakar said.
The party’s standard bearer also appealed to aggrieved party members to return to the PDP, pledging that their grievances would be addressed.
“Today, we are making another history. The history, which we believe will bring about fundamental changes in governance and also in our political processes.
“Today, we have witnessed another one of the freest elections to be conducted by our great party.
“Today marks another milestone in the process of our democratic gains,” he said.
On his plan for the country, the ex-VP said: “I am going to deal decisively with our security challenges in this country. I also pledge to confront our economic challenges, which were caused by the APC government.
“The PDP made Nigeria one of the most prosperous countries on the African continent. We implemented economic reforms that brought about jobs, and prosperity in this country.”
The gains according to him had been wiped out, pledging to return them.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Mr Abubakar polled 371 votes to defeat his close contender, Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers, who polled 237 votes. Ex-Senate President Bukola Saraki scored 70 votes to come third.
A total of 15 aspirants were cleared to contest the PDP presidential primary although some of them withdrew before the contest started on Saturday.
Northern youth leaders congratulate Atiku
Meanwhile, the Northern Youth Leaders Forum (NYLF) has congratulated Alhaji Abubakar on his success at the PDP presidential primary.
NYLF, a coalition made up of over 40 groups, then vowed to work in ensuring Atiku wins the 2023 presidential election.
A statement signed by the NYLF President, Comrade Eliot Afiyo, and made available to newsmen Sunday said: “We are not particularly surprised by the victory of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar at the PDP primaries which ended early this morning; we are excited that his victory gives hope to ordinary Nigerians who have gone through a lot of recent.”
NYLF said it is also congratulating the PDP “for producing a winning candidate, Nigerians hope of a brighter future and the North, which has not had its fair share of the presidency under the PDP.
“With the primaries done, NYLF will immediately swing into action to mobilise support from the grassroots for our adopted candidate for the 2023 Presidential election,” NYLF said.
The group expressed appreciation to the Northern Elders for their intervention to ensure the victory of Atiku.
“We also thank Governor Aminu Tambuwal for putting the Northern interest above any other interest.
“We extend our appreciation to Teecom under the Chairmanship of High Chief Raymond Dokpesi,” they said.