The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Nyesom Wike, has urged former Vice President Atiku Abubakar to abandon any hopes of securing the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential ticket for the 2027 election.
Wike emphasized that the party’s ticket will not be “wasted” on individuals he described as “serial betrayers” facing the fallout from their past actions within the PDP.
During a live media briefing in Abuja on Wednesday, Wike firmly stated that Atiku, the PDP’s 2023 presidential candidate, would not be granted another chance in 2027.
Recall that Atiku, in response to the interview by Wike, had mocked the Minister over his failure to defeat him in the PDP’s 2022 primary election.
Atiku, responding through his media aide, Phrank Shaibu, pointed to his prior successes over Wike in securing the PDP’s presidential candidacy in 2023 and former Governor Aminu Tambuwal’s defeat in 2019
Reacting, Lere Olayinka, Senior Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media to the Minister, reinforced Wike’s position.
In a statement released on Thursday, Olayinka urged Atiku and his supporters to refrain from pushing for his candidacy in 2027, stating, “His Excellency, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, and those urging him on for personal gain should allow the PDP to breathe.”
He said: “That Atiku is venerating himself for contesting PDP ticket with Wike and Tambuwal, people who were just a little above 25 as at 1993, when he contested the Social Democratic Party (SDP) presidential primary and came third, is the more reason he needs to go home and rest and stop acting like the proverbial cock that failed to realize that it is now elderly.
“It is obvious that he (Atiku) is paying the price of betraying the PDP in 2003, 2007 and 2014. If not, the same presidency he has contested twice and lost, could have been his to just pick if he had avoided being inordinately ambitious while he was Vice President.
“It was this desperation that made him contest for president as candidate of Action Congress in 2007, while still serving as Vice President, elected under the platform of the PDP. A serving Vice President joining others to form another party and contesting as candidate of the new party against his own party. That’s Alhaji Atiku Abubakar!
“Most importantly, Atiku’s conscience will continue to prick him on his roles in Lagos in 2023, and I am sure that even his apology to PDP members in 2018 can never remove from his body, that garment of betrayal.
“Therefore, it is again being sounded to his ears and those of the people lying to him that he is the only one who can win the presidency for the PDP that the ticket of the party will not be for someone like him, who will lose election and run to Dubai, only to come back two years to another election.”