Atiku's VP: South-east, south-west battle for slot

macfranc007 October 09, 2018 Nigeria News today & Breaking news ▷ Read Naija news 24/7 Adeola Opeyemi

- The struggle to fill the vacant slot of running vice president to the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, has started

- The battle is reportedly between south-east and south-west

- Those on the top list according to a source are Ike Ekweremadu and Peter Obi

The struggle to fill the vacant slot of the running vice president to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Atiku Abubakar, has reportedly started with the competition between south-east and south-west.

A source in the party claimed that those on the top list to be picked from include the deputy senate president, Ike Ekweremadu and former Anambra state governor, Peter Obi, both from south-east.

Another source who spoke to Daily Post, however said the party knows the importance of giving the slot to a candidate from south-east and they are prepared to beg the south-west for the slot.

The source said: “We’ll beg the South-West. If we must win and win well, the running mate would have to come from the South-East. Then we can give South-West the Senate President.

“We will be doing this for two reasons. One, to give them a sense of belonging so that they are not carried away by the political sympathy APC seems to be showing them. Two, we are already hearing that one of the governorship candidates from the area is saying that our candidate had promised him the VP slot long time ago. There was nothing like that.

“It will be suicidal to take the slot to the South-West. I can tell you that no one is thinking along that line. The South-South and the South-East will determine the outcome of the 2019 presidential election. The APC already has its running mate from the South-West. So, if you go and take that of PDP from the same zone, they will just be struggling for votes in the zone, whereas a running mate from the South-East will change the equation, since we can’t take it to the South-South again.

“PDP will not make that mistake of not giving the South-East the slot. It will be suicidal. If you do it, South-East will vote for Buhari for another four years. I am sure you know the implication, which means PDP will lose 11 states in the presidential election."

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NAIJ.com earlier reported that outgoing Ekiti State Governor, Ayo Fayose, regretted the failure of Sokoto Governor, Aminu Tambuwal, to emerge as the PDP presidential candidate at the party’s national convention held in Port Harcourt on Saturday.

He also threatened to leave the party. Mr Fayose, in a statement on Monday in Ado Ekiti, said he supported his Rivers counterpart, Nyesom Wike, to ensure the emergence of Mr Tambuwal.

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