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From Noah Ebije, Kaduna
The immediate past Chairman, Board of Trustees (BoT) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Walid Jibrin, has said the speech made by the party’s presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, during an interactive session with Arewa groups in Kaduna, was grossly misinterpreted by those looking for his downfall.
In a statement he issued in Kaduna, the Second Republic Senator said, “The statement made by Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, Wazirin Adamawa and PDP presidential candidate at the Arewa House, Kaduna was seriously misinterpreted, as it was widely and wrongly spread in the social media.”
Senator Jibrin said any well meaning Nigerian couldn’t have concluded that a veteran politician like Atiku who is canvassing for votes across the country would make such a statement by pushing aside other tribes.
He said, “Atiku is a typical Nigerian married to Yoruba and Igbo wives. He is a typical pan-African. He was in Arewa House to seek the support of the North and to convince the South, especially Yoruba and Igbo on his becoming the President of Nigeria in 2023.
“He needs the support of all tribal groups in Nigeria even though he comes from the North and that is why he was appealing to all northerners through the Arewa Joint Committee to convince all southern groups especially Igbo and Yoruba to give him maximum support like the one given to former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.”
The interactive session was being organised by the Arewa Joint Committee made up of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), Northern Elders Forum (NEF), Sir Ahmadu Bello Memorial Foundation (SABMF), Jamiyyar Matan Arewa (JMA) Arewa House (Centre for Historical Development and Research) and Arewa Research and Documentation Project to engage the presidential candidates of the PDP, APC, SDP, NNPP, LP and the PRP.
