The Imo State Governor, Chief Rochas Okorocha, has said that the exit of
Alhaji Atiku Abubakar from the ruling All Progressives Congress was not
a good development for the party.
Atiku, a former Vice President, recently defected from the ruling party to Peoples Democratic Party.
Okorocha, who spoke with journalists after receiving an honorary
doctorate degree at the Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba Akoko, Ondo
State on Saturday, however, described Abubakar as a heavyweight
politician.
He said, “I have taken a holistic view of our party,
it (Atiku’s exit) is not the best because no matter how anybody thinks,
Atiku carries some political weight. His leaving our party is not the
best.”
The Imo State Governor, however, noted that since Atiku
had decided to move on politically by going to another political party,
the APC would make amend and his (Atiku) place will be filled up
accordingly.
Reacting to the statement credited to APC Leader,
Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu, which said there would be no automatic ticket for
President Buhari ahead the 2019 Presidential Election, against the
position of the APC governors, Okorocha maintained that he would support
Buhari for a second term.
The chairman of the APC Governors’
Forum had earlier said all the governors would support the party’s sole
candidacy of President Buhari in 2019 election but Tinubu disagreed,
insisting that the APC’s presidential candidate must emerge through a
primary.
Okorocha said, “The (Tinubu’s) statement came to me as a
surprise, come to think of it, I never referred to him. I refer to the
governors of Nigeria including the PDP governors and I said only one or
two of them have not joined yet.
“Since I made the statement, no
governor has said something contrary to what I said. I am surprised that
Asiwaju will now be speaking for the governors. He looks like somebody
crying more than the bereaved. I did not see reason for the statement
actually. But he commands my respect and I don’t want to join issue with
the National Leader of my party.
“What I mentioned was for the
governors and secondly what I said is support. The word I use is support
that does not mean there will not be primary. Governors can only
contribute only 37 votes, we still have over 5,000 votes up there. What I
was talking about was governors. I was not talking about other party
members. Governors alone do not determine the flagbearer of a party.
“If
you recall, I said but for Buhari, I would have run for presidency of
the Federal Republic of Nigeria. But I found in him a man credible and
he still has four years term to do. I will allow him to complete and I
will go back to my political trenches because I would still run for
presidency anyhow. I consider myself young enough to wait until 2023 and
I don’t hide my stand on any issue. But for now, my support goes to
President Muhammadu Buhari.”
