2027: No Stepping Aside, I’m Still In The Presidential Race — Atiku

By Gabriel Ogunlana

Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar has stated that he is still  gunning for the highest political seat in the country denying reports making the rounds that he has stepped aside from the 2027 presidential race.

Atiku made his position known in a statement issued on Monday by his media office.

The statement is in response to a report circulating online that the former vice-president has quit active politics

Atiku described the viral report as “coordinated disinformation campaign” against him adding that it’s hatched in   the rumour mill of political adversaries and being bruited around by “anti-democratic elements who are deeply unsettled by the growing influence” of the ADC by the day.

“We wish to state, for the record, that information circulating on social media about a purported meeting of His Excellency, Atiku Abubakar, with stakeholders of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), in which the former Vice President allegedly decided to ‘step aside and retire from active politics,’ is entirely false and deliberately misleading,” the statement reads.

“The Waziri Adamawa has not, in recent times, held any such meeting with ADC stakeholders at the national level. The only recent engagement he had was with stakeholders of the ADC in Adamawa State last Thursday.

“An issue as fundamental and consequential as exiting active politics cannot, and would never, be communicated through rumours, faceless sources, or third-party fabrication. Such a decision, if ever taken, would be formally conveyed through the Atiku Media Office.

“This latest falsehood bears all the hallmarks of a coordinated disinformation campaign designed to create confusion, dampen momentum, and mislead the Nigerian public.

“We state without equivocation that this mischief is being driven by anti-democratic elements who are deeply unsettled by the growing national consensus to rescue Nigeria from the failures of the current administration.”

Abubakar’s media office asked Nigerians and supporters of the ADC chieftain to disregard the “fake news in its entirety”.

Atiku, who is taking a shot at the presidency for the seventh time, is considered as a perennial candidate for highest political office of the country.

The former Vice President is expected to run for the presidential ticket of the ADC will now have Peter Obi, Rotimi Amaechi and perhaps Kwankwaso to contend with at the party’s primary election.