Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, yesterday, disclosed that he refused to make former Lagos State Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu his running mate in 2007 because of his preference for the South East.
At a meeting with members of the Board of Trustees (BoT) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Abuja, Atiku made it clear that when he defected to Tinubu’s then Action Congress (AC) in 2006, he was given some conditions before he got the presidential ticket for the 2007 election. According to him, the topmost was to pick Tinubu as running mate.
Atiku said he rejected the request and picked Senator Ben Obi from Anambra State because of his belief in the South East.
In his words, “When I joined the Action Congress (AC), which my friend, Bola, set up, he gave me a set of conditions for giving me the ticket. He said that I should make him vice president. I said no, I am not going to make you vice president; instead I took Ben Obi.”
“When I got the ticket again to run under the PDP, I took another Obi (Peter Obi) coincidentally. So, there is absolutely no reason why they should say that there is a deliberate attempt to exclude the South East in political participation or power sharing.”