Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has denied any ambition to seek the presidential ticket in 2015, as currently circulating on the Internet.
Instead, he blamed one Churchill Umoren, an aide of Doyin Okupe, the special assistant to President Goodluck Jonathan on public affairs, as the one peddling the rumour as instructed by his pay masters.
Atiku recently defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC) from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
“It has come to our notice that someone who goes by the name Churchill, an aide to Doyin Okupe, senior special assistant on public affairs, posted a material on the social media purporting that former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has sealed a deal with leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, ceding the presidential ticket of APC to the former Vice President”, read a statement from Atiku’s Media Office on Tuesday evening.
“This is not true and nothing can be further from the truth. That libellous and malicious report has since found its way on one of the online newspapers linked to Mr. Umoren. And following media inquiries, we are compelled to state as follows:
“That the publication in question is the handiwork of the Office of Senior Special Assistant on Public Affairs, acting out the script of his paymaster.
“That Atiku Abubakar did not seal any deal with Tinubu; asked for no concession from the promoters of the APC and got none in return.
“That the libellous and malicious publication is meant to cause disaffection among Atiku, Tinubu, Buhari and other leading lights of the APC.
“That the public is hereby urged to discountenance that libellous and malicious report, as it is only a figment of the imagination of hatchet staff linked to the Office of the Senior Special Assistant on Public Affairs”.
