The Northern Youths Leaders Forum (NYLF) has advised the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, to drop Peter Obi as his running mate if he hopes to earn the support of the northern region.
The group comprised of 46 youth organisations in the North threatened to mobilise its over six million members against the PDP and its presidential candidate if Atiku failed to heed to its their. National Chairman of the group, Comrade Elliot Afiyo, made the call on Tuesday, October 23, in Abeokuta, Ogun state, after a meeting with former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Monday night.
Afiyo said: “Atiku is an experienced politician, and he knows what happened and as a northern Nigerian he cannot ignore our group. I have spoken to almost all the Southeast governors and they told me that they remained in PDP because of their governorship elections and after their governorship elections they will vote somewhere, not PDP. For us to ignore the stakeholders is political suicidal, so we must agree with that fact. That was what we told Obasanjo yesterday, that as far as we want to Atiku to succeed, he has no alternative than to drop Peter Obi and with the contention between Peter Obi’s group and Ike Ekeremadu’s group, it is not politically convenient again to pick a running mate from the Southeast.
“Then, in the North, we consider Peter Obi as anti-North. This is no sentiment. Apart from the way he treated the northeners when he was the governor of Anambra state, we consider him as a bonafide member and major sponsor of IPOB. In fact, 70 percent of emirs, traditional rulers from the north will not support Peter Obi as the vice president.
“We don’t work on sentiment. As I have told you before, our group staked our lives in 2015 for Buhari. Personally, I was placed under house arrest for two weeks throughout the extension of the presidential election in 2015. I was fighting with the hope that Buhari would change things but there is a cabal and Buhari is completely caged.
“Also, mind you, Atiku is not a saint, anyone that becomes president, there must be a cabal, so we need a vice president that will tell the cabal ‘no’ and Peter Obi doesn’t have the courage and boldness to be the vice president to challenge the authorities. But if Atiku fails to heed our warning, then, APC will win. Buhari will win hands down because we cannot support a failure. We will work for APC.”
However, Obi’s spokesperson, Valemtine Obienyen, dismissed the group’s request. Obienyen said: “Why protest in Ota? Who is behind the protest? What does the project intend to achieve? Is it true that the planning of the protest was revealed almost a week ago? Why is it that when you have failed to see any fault in Obi, you are bent on inventing one? These are necessary questions which any sincere inquirer will deem appropriate to start with.
“We do not need such distraction now. What we need is joining of hands together as we collectively seek solutions to our problems. PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigeria’s #1 news app “All those that knew Obi very well for what he did in the past, both in his private business and governance of Anambra State and thereafter, wrote eulogies of him. Researchers went to work. After careful and painstaking analyses of his past, they submitted that he is humble, hardworking, knowledgeable about the economy, aware of the myriad of problems of the country, detribalised and a believe in the unity of the country.”
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