Akande: Tinubu nominated as Atiku’s running mate, but was betrayed

Osun former Gov. Bisi Akande and founding member the APC has disclosed how Atiku Abubakar, former Vice President, rejected Bola Tinubu as his running mate in 2007/

In his autobiography, My Partictpations, Akande revealed the AC then nominated Tinubu when the party gave Atiku the presidential ticket.

Akande was the chairman of the AC then.

“One day, after we had nominated Atiku as our presidential candidate, one young man came and gave me a form from INEC. I told him I could not sign a blank form and that I, as the Chairman, must know the name that would be filled in it.

“The young man, Bashir Yusuf Ibrahim, must have been the organizing right-hand man of Atiku. The following morning, he came again with Lawan Kaita. Kaita begged me and said it was Ben Obi’s whom Atiku had chosen as his running mate behind our backs.

“So, I signed the form because I believed in the candidate. If I refused to sign, that would create a crisis.”

But Atiku lost the election to then PDP candidate and the late President Umar Yar’Adua.