2023: Joe Igbokwe sends warning message over Atiku’s candidacy

Joe Igbokwe, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Lagos State, on Wednesday warned that the candidacy of Atiku Abubakar, presidential flag-bearer of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the 2023 election implies that “a sharp knife” has been put on things that have held Nigerians together since the country was granted independence on October 1, 1960.

POLITICS NIGERIA reports that according to Igbokwe, the Special Adviser for Drainage and Water Resources to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Nigeria’s next president must emerge from the South, considering the incumbent leader, Muhammadu Buhari, is from the North.

“Those who are still pushing Atiku Abubakar to contest in the 2023 are constantly putting a sharp knife on things that have held us together as nation for 62 yrs. Power is zoned the South in 2023,” Igbokwe wrote on his known Facebook page.

The February 25 2023 presidential election will be Atiku’s fifth shot at the presidency. The 75-year-old has had other unsuccessful contests for the seat under both the APC and his current party, the PDP. The Adamawa-born politician also secured the ticket of the PDP in 2019 but lost at the general elections to the incumbent, President Buhari of the APC.

The former vice-president will face the likes of Bola Tinubu (APC), Peter Obi (Labour Party), Rabiu Kwankwaso (New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP), Professor Christopher Imumolen (Accord Party), and Omoyele Sowore (African Action Congress, AAC).