The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has dismissed the accusation by the All Progressives Congress (APC) that its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar is playing ethnic and tribal politics with a statement credited to him at the interactive session of the Arewa town hall police dialogue in Kaduna.
AtikuAbubakar, who hails from Adamawa in the north-east, told his audience which included a significant percentage of persons of Hausa and Fulani extraction, that they don’t need an Igbo or Yoruba as president but “someone from the north”.
The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) had in a statement issued earlier on Sunday slammed the Vice President for asking the northern parts of the country to vote for him next year.
However, in a statement by the National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, the PDP accused the ruling party of smearing Atiku’s image.
“The PDP describes as shameless and irresponsible that the APC will go to the extent of deliberately distorting, doctoring, misinterpreting and taking out of context, the comment by the PDP Presidential Candidate at a Stakeholders’ meeting in Kaduna State on Sunday in a bid to smear his image as a Pan-Nigerian leader.
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“To set the record straight, the PDP Presidential Candidate, in responding within the context of the question put to him at the event noted that he had built bridges across the country and that what Nigerians including an average northerner need was a Pan-Nigerian leader and not an ethnic champion.
“Of course, Nigerians are wise and can fully understand the contextual import of the statement by Atiku Abubakar which is that what Nigerians need is a competent and Pan Nigerian leader and not a regionally inclined individual.
“We know that the APC is jittery over the overwhelming popularity of Atiku Abubakar across the nation because of his focus on issues that will improve the lives of Nigerians and as such the APC is desperate to smear his Pan-Nigerian standing.
“Moreover, Nigerians know that if there is any Party that has inflicted discord and strife of a worst kind in our country, it is the divisive APC which has violently balkanized our nation and brazenly elevated nepotism, tribalism, ethnicity and sectional chauvinism as official Policies of State.
“Under the APC, Nigeria became so divided that sectional self-determination agitation escalated with many regions establishing their own quasi-security outfits in total loss of faith in the APC administration.