Yakubu Dogara, the immediate past speaker of the House of Representatives, and some aggrieved members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) have declared their support for Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Dogara, Babachir Lawal, former secretary to the government of the federation; Simon Achuba, former Kogi state deputy governor; and other APC northern Christian leaders had withdrawn their support for Bola Tinubu, the APC presidential candidate over the Muslim-Muslim ticket presented by the ruling party.
The Dogara camp had also dismissed Lawal’s declaration of the group’s support for Peter Obi, Labour Party presidential candidate, ahead of the 2023 general election.
The group had said it would make its decision known at an interfaith event in the coming days.
Presenting their decision at an event in Abuja, Achuba disclosed that Atiku was unanimously adopted after careful consideration of the report by a technical committee set up by leaders of the group.
He noted that the President Muhammadu Buhari-led APC government had engendered widespread national perception of its inability to tackle security challenges and turn around the national economy.
According to him, the Muslim-Muslim ticket presented by Tinubu and Senator Kashim Shettima ticket cannot guarantee the desired peace, unity, and cohesion needed in the country. “The perception that the APC presidential candidate has some health challenges makes people very uncomfortable.” “There is the fear that it may precipitate a situation where unelected surrogates will be running the government while the president is left attending to his health,” Achuba said on behalf of the group.
