TheCable

Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), says the party is open to forming an alliance with the Labour Party (LP).

Abubakar spoke on Thursday at a press conference in Abuja.

The former vice-president admitted that the PDP lost a considerable number of votes to Peter Obi, the LP presidential candidate in Saturday’s election. 

“It is a fact that he took our votes from the south-east and the south-south — that of course would not make him a president,” he said.

“You all know that to be a president in this country you all need votes from everywhere. So as far as I am concerned, Peter is welcome to dialogue with PDP — we are ready to dialogue with him.

“I don’t think we will have any problem if he wants to dialogue with PDP — either form an alliance or not.”

Abubakar said Obi left the party and joined the LP after governors in the PDP insisted that someone among them must be the standard-bearer, and vice presidential candidate.

He said instead of leaving the party, he “stood and fought the governors” and won the party’s presidential ticket.

“I think Peter was in a rush (to leave),” he said.

“Peter got scared and left. I did not get scared. I stood up against the governors.

“When we formed the PDP some of them (PDP governors) were perhaps in secondary schools or the university.

“So if he (Obi) was there, nothing could have stopped him from becoming a running mate because I had the right to choose whoever I wanted to choose as my running mate.”

On Wednesday, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Tinubu as the winner of the election and also issued him a certificate of return.

Mahmood Yakubu, chairman of the INEC, said Tinubu secured 8,794,726 votes.

Abubakar had the second-highest figure with 6,984,520 votes, while Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) was next with 6,101,533 votes.

Both the PDP and LP have rejected the results and vowed to challenge the election in court.