APC, a party of deceivers, blindfolded Nigerians into poverty—Atiku

PRESIDENTIAL candidate of the Peoples Democracy Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has described the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) as a party of deceivers, noting that it blindfolded and led Nigerians into poverty.

He said this while addressing hundreds of youths at the Lamido Cinema in Yola, Adamawa State, who endorsed his presidential ambition ahead of the 2019 polls.

The youths under the aegis of the Atiku/Obi Vanguard for Good Governance, had organised a road show in support of Atiku’s aspiration, urging him to fight hard and defeat President Muhammadu Buhari in the 2019 election.

While speaking, Atiku reechoed the need to vote out Buhari by his supporters, accusing his government of failing to provide anything tangible to Nigerian youths “but only inflicting untold pains and so much suffering on the people of the country.”

Atiku stated that Buhari had failed the country in too many ways, noting that it was the duty of the Nigerian youths to vote him out. He chanted as the supporters cheered, “Buhari must go! Buhari must go!”

This was as the former vice-president reiterated his commitment to the participation of youths and women in his government should he win election and become president, specifying that youths would get 40 per cent participation, while women would get 30 per cent.

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Earlier in his address, the Coordinator of Atiku/Obi Vanguard for Good Governance, Leader Teneka, said so many negative things had happened since Buhari became president and that he ought to be voted out.

“It is no longer news that our country has been designated world extreme poverty capital. We’ve been declared one of the most dangerous countries to be born in. It is also no longer news that massive and unabated corruption continues to fester. We are more divided as a country now than we have ever been,” Teneka said, urging his fellow youths to rally for Atiku and ensure his election as the next president.

Meanwhile, no fewer than 30 pro-Atiku groups fused together in Plateau State, under the aegis of United Support Group for Atiku to mobilise support for him.

Speaking with newsmen shortly after the ceremony in Jos, the coordinator of the group, Comrade John Mark, said the coming together of the groups was to allow for proper coordination of activities ahead of the 2019 presidential election instead of working at cross purposes.

“We discovered that there were a lot of groups in Plateau State and in the neighbouring states out to campaign for the presidential candidate of the PDP. To make things work towards the actualisation of this goal, we discovered that there was the need for us to come together and pursue this under the same umbrella for proper coordination,” he said.