Atiku Explains His Love For South East

<h4>Atiku Illustrates his love for Ndigbos<&sol;h4>&NewLine;<p><strong><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;">OpenLife Nigeria<&sol;a><&sol;strong> reports that former Vice President Atiku Abubakar&comma; has disclosed why he refused to make former Lagos State Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu his running mate in 2007 because of his preference for the South East&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;At a meeting with members of the Board of Trustees &lpar;BoT&rpar; of the Peoples Democratic Party &lpar;PDP&rpar; in Abuja&comma; Atiku made it clear that when he defected to Tinubu’s then Action Congress &lpar;AC&rpar; in 2006&comma; he was given some conditions before he got the presidential ticket for the 2007 election&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;According to him&comma; the topmost was to pick Tinubu as running mate&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Atiku said he rejected the request and picked Senator Ben Obi from Anambra State because of his belief in the South East&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;In his words&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;When I joined the <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;punchng&period;com&sol;">Action Congress &lpar;AC&rpar;&comma;<&sol;a> which my friend&comma; Bola&comma; set up&comma; he gave me a set of conditions for giving me the ticket&period; He said that I should make him vice president&period; I said no&comma; I am not going to make you vice president&semi; instead I took Ben Obi&period;”<br &sol;>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;When I got the ticket again to run under the PDP&comma; I took another Obi &lpar;Peter Obi&rpar; coincidentally&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;So&comma; there is absolutely no reason why they should say that there is a deliberate attempt to exclude the South East in political participation or power sharing&period;”<br &sol;>&NewLine;<strong>Source&colon; Guardian Newspaper<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;