Atiku’s ‘don’t vote for Yoruba, Igbo’ remark causes outrage

Statesmen, politicians, ethnic nationality groups and the Presidential Campaign Council of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) yesterday chided Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar for what they described as fanning the embers of disunity.

They frowned at the highly divisive, ethnocentric and provocative statement made by the former vice president, which, in their views meant to score cheap political goals at the weekend.

At a parley in Abuja organized by Arewa Joint Committee, Atiku, who is from Adamawa State in the Northeast, urged Northerners not to vote for Yoruba and Igbo presidential candidates in next year’s polls.

He said the North does not need an Igbo on Yoruba president, but “someone from the North.”

Atiku stressed: “I have traversed the whole of the country… This is what the Northerner needs. He (Northerner) doesn’t need a Yoruba candidate, or an Igbo. This is what the Northerner needs. I stand before you as a pan-Nigerian of Northern origin.”