Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, has denied having an anointed aspirant for the Kogi PDP governorship primary election.
WITHIN NIGERIA reports that Atiku made this public in a statement issued by his Media Adviser, Paul Ibe, on Tuesday.
The former Vice-President denied several media reports that he was involved in the democratic process of selecting the PDP’s gubernatorial candidate in the upcoming Kogi State governorship election.
The statement reads:
We wish to state categorically that such media reports are false and gross fabrication.
Atiku is a consummate democrat and the hallmark of his political struggles has been for the enablement of internal democracy in party politics.
It is therefore absurd to suggest that Atiku has a preferred candidate in the primary election to produce the governorship candidate of the PDP in the Kogi State election – or in any primary election, for that matter.
For the avoidance of any doubts, Atiku Abubakar has no anointed candidate in the Kogi State primary election.
He believes that the decision to elect the flag bearer of the PDP in the coming election in the Confluence State is the responsibility of electors in that primary election.
He therefore urges anyone amongst the candidates to desist from peddling influence with his name and, indeed, calls on the media not to lay prostrate to any blackmail against him.
Atiku believes that all the aspirants in the election are up to the task of flying the flag of our great party, the PDP and the electors should be given the unfettered rights to perform their constituted duty of electing the best person for the PDP.