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"We Have Gone Past The Stage Of Producing A Consensus Candidate"- Atiku

Published

10 years ago

November 30, 2014

Former Vice President and a Presidential aspirant of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Alhaji Abubakar Atiku has declared that issue of consensus Presidential candidate for the party was no longer feasible in the current political calculations.
He spoke in Akure after several meetings with delegates and Party leaders in the state as part of his mobilisation drive.
Atiku said “We have gone past the stage of reaching any consensus or producing a consensus candidate.”
He added that ” we have gotten past the era where someone can impose any candidate on the party ..
The aspirant said he is very optimistic that APC would conduct free and fair primaries.
According to him, “no one can impose candidate on the party and on the consensus issue, there is no way they can use consensus because we have grown beyond that. We are preparing for primaries. Who are the party leaders? we are the leaders of the party and there won’t be imposition”.
When asked if he can defeat Gen Muhammadu Buhari, Alhaji Atiku said” let’s wait till when I would prove my popularity at the primaries proper.
He assured that he would emerge victorious in the contest irrespective of the seeming popularity of his main opponent.
The former Vice President who applauded the state delegates for receiving him, noted that he had been counting the numbers of delegates that would support his ambition in every states he visits.
At the Party secretariat, the state Chairman Hon Isaac Kekemeke said the party saw Atiku’s visit as that of an elder visiting members of his family.
Kekemeke said “What we know is that any of our party’s aspirants who emerge would be better that Goodluck Jonathan.
“We have not taken any position as a party on any aspirant. But we are excited at the visit of Atiku as an elder in the party.”