Gang -up against Buhari will fail, says APC chieftain

A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr. Charles Idahosa, on Tuesday, expressed surprise over the sudden endorsement of the presidential candidate of Peoples Democratic Party, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, by the former President Olusegun Obasanjo. He said the gang-up is to ensure that President Muhammadu Buhari does not win in the forthcoming election. He expressed his resentment while fielding questions from newsmen in Benin on the preparedness of APC in the forthcoming generation elections. Idahosa said Obasanjo in his book entitled “My Watch” accused his then vice president, Atiku Abubakar, of looting the country dry, adding that the sudden twist between the duo has become a major source of concern to Nigerians. “We know what happened in this country in 16 years because I was part and parcel of the whole system. When you now see old leaders, former presidents all ganging up against one person, the first thing you should ask yourselves is, why? Why are they against this man? Atiku was vice president to Obasanjo for 8 years, go and read ‘My Watch’ page 232-234. “He said this man is a very big thief. He said the money he stole can feed three hundred million people for four hundred years”, he said. The party chieftain said the sudden romance of Obasanjo with Atiku was borne out of his frustration having failed to garner support for his political ambition and desperation to be politically relevant in the nation’s politics. “A couple of months ago, he said God will punish him if I ever supported Atiku and God will never forgive him but he went ahead to form a party thinking that he will be able to marshal enough people to follow him. When that one failed, he came back to PDP which he publicly brought out his party’s card and tore it on television. “The question you need to ask yourself is, what is the desperation about? So you swallowed all those words, a man you called a thief? You called all sorts of names? “I was for Atiku when they were fighting and I have granted interviews on this same matter. I was there when Obasanjo prostrated in Rivers State governor’s lodge, begging Atiku to allow him do a second term, in 2003. “I was not told, I was there, myself, James Ibori and Depriye Alamaseigha. That is what Ibori went to jail for because they mastermind it. “Atiku was the president of this country already, they did not want Obasanjo to do a second term. He prostrated and knelt down in Rivers State governor’s lodge in Abuja. I was not told. I saw him do that and he has not denied it. So, what is the desperation?” he asked. Titus Akhigbe, Benin