Atiku visits Fayose, says ‘I don’t want to comment on OBJ’s letter’
Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar held a meeting with Ayo Fayose, governor of Ekiti state and leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ekiti on Wednesday.
Abubakar’s plane touched down at Akure airport in Ondo state on Wednesday morning before heading to Ado-Ekiti, capital of Ekiti state.
Fayose led some PDP leaders in Ekiti to welcome Abubakakar in Akure.
The former number two citizen said he chose to visit Ekiti because of Fayose’s role as an opposition leader and chairman of the PDP governors’ forum.
He said Fayose’s popularity in Ekiti and Nigeria was not in doubt as he has been acknowledged as a “straight-forward politician”.
He said he was not in Ekitit to campaign but to consult with party leaders on the way forward.
“Since my return to PDP, this is the first state I am visiting to consult with leadership and party members,” he said.
“Governor Fayose and I had struck a relationship during his first tenure and I respect him for this.”
He said he did want to comment on the letter which ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo wrote to President Muhamadu Buhari, asking him not to run in 2019.
“The letter was a personal issue between two individuals, so I won’t like to comment on it,” Abubakar said.
But Fayose used the occasion to attack both Obasanjo and Buhari.
The governor alleged that Obasanjo was frustrated because Buhari rejected the ministerial nominees he presented.
Nigeria needs a man of indelible reputation and untainted image to continue the war on corruption – and Atiku does not fit that frame. Atiku was in fact one of those who wish to kick the war on corruption to the curb, and he has his own personal reasons for that. He has been part of the Nigerian problem for 40 years and has nothing positive to contribute besides dragging us back. He and Fayose dance to the same dirty beats and sounds of ineptitude and deviousness.