PDP scolds critics, says Atiku’s pan-Nigeria leader,  won’t succumb to cheap political points

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has scolded critics of the party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, over his statement at the Northern Stakeholders Meeting in Kaduna for presidential candidate in the region.

The Atiku Media Office in a statement declared that the presidential candidate of the PDP will not play to the gallery to score cheap political points for the 2023 Elections.

According to the statement: “For the benefit of the innocent public who might be hoodwinked, what transpired was a direct question on why Atiku should be voted for by the Northern electorate.

“In answering this question, Atiku started with a joke by addressing the questioner as ‘Mr Northerner’ which is a veiled criticism of why he limited his question to the Northern audience in the first place.

“Continuing, Atiku explained without a slur, that what matters the most to the Northern electorate is a candidate who has built bridges of unity across other parts of the country and not necessarily a Northern candidate who lacks the credentials of national spread and acceptability.”

The party maintained that Atiku  “stood agile and cerebral” before his hosts at the Arewa House, saying he is a symbol of national unity, cohesion and tolerance who is comfortable and is loved in all parts of the country.

Also, the PDP National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, in a statement in Abuja on Sunday, expressed concerns over attempts to deliberately distort, doctor, misinterpret, and take out of context, the statement of Atiku Abubakar at the Kaduna meeting.

The National Publicity Secretary declared: “For clarity and avoidance of doubt Abubakar remains a Pan-Nigerian leader.

”He has never and will never set any part of our country against the other as being mischievously hyped.

“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.”

The PDP urged Nigerians to disregard the attacks and remain focused on the PDP’s mission to rescue, reunite, rebuild and restore Nigeria on the path of peace, national cohesion and economic prosperity, which, the party said, Atiku/Okowa Presidential ticket represents.