According to Kassim Afegbua, a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain, former vice-president Atiku Abubakar abandoned his supporters after the 2019 elections.
During the 2019 elections, Afegbua served as the spokesperson for Atiku Abubakar’s presidential campaign.
On Sunday, the PDP chairman said Atiku should not become a “perpetual candidate” for the presidency, and that the country’s next president must come from the south.
Afegbua and Segun Showunmi, a PDP chieftain and Atiku supporter, were interviewed on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Tuesday.
When asked about what transpired after the 2019 elections, Afegbua revealed that instead of re-strategizing, the former vice-president left his campaign team in Nigeria and relocated to Dubai.
“The point is that in 2023, I don’t want Alhaji Atiku Abubakar to be a professional aspirant or a perpetual candidate in every election,” he said.
“He contested in 2011 with one party; he left. When he was vice-president, he also ran under another party. He was in APC; he left APC. We are both in the PDP,” he said.
“He contested in 2019; that was the best outing. He put up a good effort and we lost the election.
“He left us in the lurch right here in Nigeria and relocated to Dubai for two and a half years.
“No general will take his own troops to the warfront and after the war, when the dust of war has not simmered, you abandon your troops. You are supposed to take your troops back to the barracks and reposition, but he did not do that.”
