A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Kassim Afegbua has stated that former vice-president, Atiku Abubakar abandoned his supporters after the 2019 elections.
Afegbua was the spokesperson of the Atiku Abubakar presidential campaign organisation during the 2019 elections.
The PDP chieftain on Sunday had stated that Atiku should not make himself a “perpetual candidate” for the presidency, adding that the southern region of the country must produce the next president.
On Tuesday, Afegbua and Segun Showunmi, a PDP chieftain and loyalist to Atiku, were interviewed on Politics Today, a programme on Channels Television.
While speaking on what happened after the 2019 elections, Afegbua said the former vice-president left his campaign team in Nigeria and relocated to Dubai instead of re-strategising.
“The point is that in 2023, I don’t want alhaji Atiku Abubakar to be a professional aspirant or a perpetual candidate in every election,” he said.
“He contested in 2011 with one party; he left. When he was vice-president, he also ran under another party. He was in APC; he left APC. We are both in the PDP,” he said.
“He contested in 2019; that was the best outing. He put up a good effort and we lost the election.
“He left us in the lurch right here in Nigeria and relocated to Dubai for two and a half years.
“No general will take his own troops to the warfront and after the war, when the dust of war has not simmered, you abandon your troops. You are supposed to take your troops back to the barracks and reposition, but he did not do that.”