Apex Igbo socio-cultural organization, Ohanaeze Ndigbo has advised the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar to forget their votes ahead of the 2023 elections.
The group in a strongly-worded message told Atiku not to entertain any hope of polling any significant votes from the South-East in the 2023 general elections.
They said this in a statement issued on Tuesday by Mazi Okechukwu Isiguzoro, its Secretary-General.
Ohanaeze advised the PDP flag bearer not to “squander his time and resources for any reason in the South-east and Igbo-speaking areas of South/south and Middle belt.”
He warned the Waziri Adamawa that those from the aforementioned region who were gathered around him are simply doing so for financial gains.
Ohanaeze Ndigbo recounted how Atiku abandoned the Igbos in 2019 after the support they gave him.
They added that it would be impossible for the former vice president to accumulate the required constitutional 25% votes after the declaration he made in Kaduna.
The group said, “our people gave Atiku all the support in 2019 but shortly after the election, he abandoned them to their fate only to return four years later.
“Now, he has even come openly to say he is merely a Northern candidate. He should know that all those flocking around him are doing ‘Yahoo-Yahoo’ to him.
“Igbo political elites, including the PDP Governors, know that Atiku will lose in the Southeast without getting the required constitutional 25% votes after his infamous Kaduna declaration that he belongs to the North only.
“Nigerians from the North, West, South, and East are encountering severe hunger, unemployment, and insecurity challenges. Any Presidential candidate dwelling on ethnicity and religious cards, without showing evidence of rescuing the country from the abyss of economic crisis and social dilemma Nigerians found themselves, will be disgraced at the polls.
“What Nigerians need now is someone who will unify the entire country, not a sectional leader like Atiku.”