Things Fall Apart In APC As Atiku Draws Final Battle Line

<h4>Things Fall Apart In APC<&sol;h4>&NewLine;<h4><&sol;h4>&NewLine;<p><strong><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;">OpenLife Nigeria<&sol;a><&sol;strong> reports that at a time political analysts heaved a sigh of relief over the clarity on the African Democratic Congress&comma; ADC presidential ticket that surfaced days ago&comma; latest information indicates that a final battle line has been drawn amongst the frontline 2027 aspirants on ADC platform&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Over time&comma; keen observers have always pointed at the presidential conflict of interest between former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and former Anambra State governor&comma; Mr&period; Peter Obi&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In every assessment&comma; both are heavy weights presidential aspirants with large followers across geo political zones&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Using different parameters&comma; many have been of the opinion that Atiku should support Obi principally on account of age and favourable zonal considerations&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>That perhaps account for the reasons supporters of Peter Obi jumped to high heaven when news filtered out on Tuesday that Atiku has granted interview to BBC Hausa Service&comma; indicating interest to step down for a younger candidate in the 2027 race&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;If I run for office&comma; and a young man defeats me&comma; I will accept that&period; The party we have joined now prioritises youth and women&comma;” he had said in the interview&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>However and in a twist&comma; the former Vice President has dismissed reports suggesting that he intends to step down for another presidential aspirant ahead of the 2027 elections&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In a statement issued on Thursday by his Media Adviser&comma; Paul Ibe&comma; Atiku described such claims as a misrepresentation of his recent interview with the BBC Hausa Service&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Ibe explained that a careful review of both the video and transcripts of the interview showed that Atiku never said&comma; suggested&comma; or implied that he intends to step down for anyone&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The statement reads&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;After a thorough review of both the video and transcripts of the interview – in the original Hausa and the <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;punchng&period;com&sol;">English translation<&sol;a> – it is evident that at no point did the former Vice President expressly state&comma; suggest&comma; or even imply that he intends to step down for anyone&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;What Atiku Abubakar clearly and unambiguously said was that young people&comma; as well as other prospective presidential aspirants&comma; are free to enter the contest&period; <&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>He further stressed that if a young candidate were to emerge through a competitive primary&comma; he would readily support such a candidate without any hesitation&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;While interpretative journalism is a legitimate aspect of reporting&comma; stretching interpretation to the point of mischief is unacceptable and must not be encouraged&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;For the record&comma; therefore&comma; the insinuations attributed to Waziri Adamawa from his BBC Hausa interview are inaccurate and do not reflect what he actually said&period;”<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;