BY MOYINOLUWA BAMIDELE-LUCAS
A chieftain of the People’s Democratic Party in Edo State, Kassim Afegbua, has challenged former Vice President Atiku Abubakar over the latter’s claim that he has always clinched the presidential ticket of the PDP.
Atiku had made the claim on Saturday in an interview with journalists at the end of a closed-door meeting with former President Olusegun Obasanjo in Abeokuta.
When asked whether he was confident of getting the party’s ticket, Atiku had said, “have I ever failed to win the ticket?”
While faulting Atiku’s claim, Afegbua said in a statement he issued on Sunday that the former Vice President represented the party only once at the polls as its presidential candidate and his confident claim amounted to a lie and misrepresentation of the facts of the matter.
Afegbua said, “Let me remind the former flag bearer of the PDP, that since formation, he has only represented the party once; in the 2019 presidential contest. So the claim that he had always gotten the ticket of the Party is a big lie.
“In 2007, when he attempted to get a ticket for the party, he was shown the exit door. In 2011, he used another party platform to pursue his ambition. In 2015, yet again, he tried to use the platform of the All Progressives’ Congress, and he was beaten roundly at the Lagos convention. That was the primary election that saw the emergence of General Muhammadu Buhari as the candidate of the APC.
“It was only in 2019 that Alhaji Atiku Abubakar emerged as the candidate of the PDP at the Port Harcourt convention when it was decided by the Southern aspirants to allow an All-Northern aspirant to contest the primary election. So the claim that “I will always get the ticket of the PDP”, flies in the face of logic, fact and reality.”
Afegbua accused Atiku of being driven only by his selfish aspirations, not the wellbeing of the party.
According to him, “At a time when the former Vice-president should be working towards strengthening the structures of the party for more electoral victories, the only thing that bothers him is all about his selfish aspiration.”