Peter Obi took my votes in South-East and South-South, Atiku confesses

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate in the just-concluded presidential election, Atiku Abubakar has admitted that his Labour Party counterpart, Peter Obi, hurt his chances in the Saturday, February 25, 2023, election.

Atiku said this while addressing a world press conference on Thursday, March 2, 2023, to announce his rejection of the outcome of the general elections.

The former Vice-President, who claimed that the exercise was marred by unprecedented manipulation and fraud allegedly perpetrated by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), said he will approach the court to seek a redress.

Asked whether Obi's candidature affected his performance at the poll, Atiku answered in the affirmative saying Obi took PDP's legacy votes in the South-East and South-South regions, but argued that the Labour Party candidate couldn't still have garnered enough votes to beat him in the contest.

"It's a fact that Peter Obi took our votes from the south-east and south-south, but that wouldn't make him a president - you need votes from everywhere. He's welcome to dialogue with the PDP on forming an alliance," the PDP candidate said.

The former Vice-President also said Obi left the PDP because he was scared of the party's governors who had insisted that one of them must produce the party's presidential candidate for the 2023 election.

Atiku said, "You negotiate for power, you don't fight for it. I think Peter Obi was in a rush. When the campaign started and our PDP governors said, 'They must produce the president among them,' he got scared and left (PDP). I didn't get scared and stood up against the governors."