How Babangida Reacted To Atiku’s Emergence As PDP Presidential Candidate

Former military Head of State, Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida has extended his congratulations to the winner of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential primaries, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.

Atiku defeated 11 other candidates to pick the PDP’s presidential ticket at the National Convention held in Port Harcourt, Rivers State over the weekend.

He secured 1,532 votes to beat his closest challenger, Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal, who got 693 votes.

In a terse statement, Babangida congratulated Atiku and described him as one of the politicians with the most investments in Nigeria.

He said, “One of the few reasons I admire Atiku is because he is one of the very few politicians who has a lot of investments in Nigeria; for some of these reasons, he has my blessings. We shall ‘Atikulate’ together in 2019, my congratulations to him.”

Atiku’s closest challenger, Tambuwal also congratulated the Waziri of Adamawa and promised to work with him to chase President Muhammadu Buhari out of power in 2019.

In a letter he signed personally, Tambuwal said, “On behalf of my humble self, my family, and millions of my supporters from across the length and breadth of the country, I heartily rejoice with and congratulate Your Excellency on your emergence as the standard flagbearer of our great political party, the PDP at the just concluded National Convention held in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

“Your emergence in a transparent process is a testament to the fact that the PDP is now a reformed party and has sent a strong signal about our resolve to bring about the desired national transformation needed to turn around the fortunes of our beloved nation Nigeria.

“The task at hand, going forward, is to ensure victory at the polls in order to save our fatherland from the current regime of annihilation bestriding it.

“This calls for unity of purpose that admits of no division, no distractions and no internal wrangling. I commit myself to this task and urge all members of our great party to roll up their sleeves and set to work as members of one united family.”