Former Vice president and the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress, ADC Atiku Abubakar, has hit back at the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT Nyesom Wike, over his week end comment that Abubakar will not receive 10 percent votes from Rivers state in the 2027 presidential election.
Apart from Rivers state, the FCT minister said the ADC and its presidential candidate will also not secure 10 perecent votes from the entire south south region.
Wike made the remark barely few days after Abubakar secured the ADC presidential ticket after defeating, former Governor Rotimi Amaechi and Isa Hayatudeen.
Not a few Nigerians watching Abubakar’s political trajectory insist that he’s one of the top contenders for the Nigerian Presidency next year, against incumbent President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
The FCT minister however said the ADC presidential candidate will not get 10 percent votes from his oil rich state, where hes’ regarded as the godfather, adding that President Tinubu will coast home to victory by wining the votes with landslide.
Reacting to the remark, in a statement issued by one of his media aides, Phrank Shaibu, on Monday the ADC presidential candidate said Wike has no power to determine the outcome of the election in the state, saying the people will eventually decide who to cast their votes for.
Abubakar said the former minister is speaking as if the entire Rivers people are in his pocket, adding that Wike’s remark only exposed the extent of fear in the All Progressives Congress, APC and President Tinubu’s camp after his emergence as ADC presidential candidate.
The former vice president said the Rivers people and Nigerians “are intelligent and independent” who know the future the want for their children and the leader who has the capacity to take them there.
“Rivers vote are not your property. The people of Rivers State are not political slaves. They are intelligent, independent-minded Nigerians who will make their choices based on the realities confronting them and the future they desire for their children,” Abubakar said.
“No individual, regardless of influence or access to federal power, can dictate how an entire state will vote,” the statement read.
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