Following the upset generated by the visit of Senate President, Bukola Saraki, to former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar immediately after emerging the number 3 citizen, Atiku has denied any complicity in Saraki’s election which thwarted the wishes of the All Progressives Congress, APC.
According to a statement issued yesterday by spokesman for the ex-Vice President and head of his media office, “It is baseless and unfounded to suggest that Atiku conspired with the PDP or Saraki to ‘sabotage’ the APC.
“He could have congratulated Senator Ahmed Lawan (or any other leader) if he had won. It is simplistic to attribute conspiratorial agenda to an innocuous congratulatory visit.
“Atiku’s loyalty to his party is indisputable. He remains a loyal party member. He, in fact, threw his political assets behind the Buhari presidential campaign.
“Any suggestion that he conspired with Saraki or anybody is the figment of someone’s imagination,” he said.
Ibe insisted that Atiku did not orchestrate the emergence of the new leadership in the National Assembly, adding that it is “nothing but political mischief as he had refused to leave the party or work for the PDP even when then President Jonathan was desperate for his (Atiku’s) support.
According to him, visits by politicians and the APC leaders including that of the Senate President are common political rituals in the former vice president’s Asokoro residence. “For the purposes of emphasis, the President has confidence in him and that explains why he had drafted him as an envoy of sorts in the race leading up to the emergence of a Nigerian President of African Development Bank (AfDB),” he said.
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