Atiku’s Aide Knocks Okupe for Faulting PDP’s Choice of Northerner in 2023

Abdul Rasheeth, an aide to former vice president Atiku Abubakar, has knocked Doyin Okupe, former Director-General, Peter Obi Presidential Campaign, for saying it was unacceptable for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to nominate a northerner as its candidate for the 2023 presidential election.

Okupe made the comment during an interview with Arise TV where he revealed that the party’s decision went against a general consensus for a southerner to be the PDP flagbearer.

According to him, southern governors all agreed that a southerner must replace the immediate past president Muhammadu Buhari who is a northerner on seat at the time.

Reacting, Rasheeth, whose principal Atiku emerged as the PDP flagbearer despite being a norther, raised some objections to Okupe’s interview.

He shared on X, “My very dear Egbon @doyinokupe, I have watched this your interview several times this morning, I’m very surprised at this attempt to rewrite history so soon… Pls, note the following Sir:

“You left PDP before the Presidential Primary that produced ALHAJI ATIKU ABUBAKAR. ATIKU did not chase you out of PDP.

“You joined PETER OBI because he offered you the assignment of Director General of his campaign, not because ATIKU got the PDP ticket..

“Governors alone could not have approved Southern candidacy for Nigeria. Every party had the right to strategise on its best candidate to field. Nigeria has never been a one party state.

“ATIKU would not have contested by force if PDP zoned the ticket to the South. As a matter of fact, the PDP Committee that threw the contest open to all zones was headed by a member of GOVERNOR WIKE’s G5 caucus, and he was no other then GOVERNOR SAMUEL ORTOM of Benue State. Their motive was to clear the path for WIKE’s emergence after ATIKU had said he won’t contest if the party zones its ticket to the South East.

“PDP had done well in its first 16 years in power, out of which the South (PRESIDENTS OBASANJO and JONATHAN) served a total of 13 years, and still gave the South another ticket in 2015, despite the fact that PRESIDENT YAR’ADUA did not even complete his first term in office.

“It is sad and unfortunate to describe the Labor Party as a “Special Purpose Vehicle”. That sounded so opportunistic. So, if you had won, you would have discarded the party. That’s so unfair to former Labor Presidential Candidate PETER OBI, a man who has turned Labor into a major force, against all expectations.”