Vice President Atiku Abubakar has said his party, the Action Congress (AC) is ready to work with All Nigeria People�s Party (ANPP) to make sure that the People�s Democratic Party (PDP) does not come back to power.
The Vice-President who spoke to journalists yesterday at the Murtala Muhammed Airport, when he arrived to attend a political rally in Lagos said, when asked whether his party would form alliance with ANPP, �We will be looking globally. The most important thing is that Nigerians must make sure that PDP does not come back to power. We will look globally, we will work together; we will work together.”
Atiku who arrived at the Presidential Wing of the airport for the first time in so many months was aboard an IRS aircraft with registration number 5N-NCC, which landed beside the presidential jet that brought President Olusegun Obasanjo to Lagos for the commissioning of the new airport terminal.
He told journalists that he was still campaigning because the court has said that he should contest, and directed the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) to put his name on the ballot, dismissing the statement credited to the Attorney-General and Justice Minister that he was not qualified to contest.
�I am not a legal expert; all I know is that I have got a court order that directed INEC to restore my name back in the ballot��
Asked what he would do if the court ruled he could not contest, the Vice-President said he would abide by the verdict, �But you know I am a man of law and order. I have always acted within the rule of law, constitutionalism as the case may be.�
Meanwhile, Vice President Atiku Abubakar said that he would never be deterred by the opposition against him because such challenges have been part of his life; �I am a self-made man. Nothing is unusual here.�
Atiku who walked on crutches due to knee injury, made the declaration yesterday at the AC rally in Onikan Stadium, Lagos tagged “The Broom Revolution, real presidential rally”.
Abubakar said the country is at a crossroad looking for a way out of the wood that Nigerians have never had it so bad.
His words: “Indeed we are in Lagos State which is noted for historic political declaration. On behalf of Nothern democrats such as Alhaji Abubakar Rimi and the hiost of others, I will like to opologise to the people of South West for the great disasters Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has brought to them in the last eight years of misrule.
“According to our National Chairman, there is no doubt that today, Nigeria is at a cross road, we cannot move forward except we do away with this present Federal Government.
“Before 1999, Nigeria was generating 3,000 megawatts
of electricity but today it has dropped to about 1,000 megawatts. What a rot in the system.
“A vote for PDP in the April polls is a vote for status quo, abuse of human rights, hunger, diseases, poverty.
�Therefore you must vote for AC candidates in the polls to improve the situation for better and set you free from the shackles of poverty.”
The Vice President recalled that it was the Northern leaders, including my humble self, that pleaded with former Military Head of State Gen Abdulsallam Abubakar to pardon Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo (rtd), when he was serving jail term for his alleged involvement for a phatom coup plot.
“There was no way Gen Obasanjo could have contested the 1999 if not for the pardon which Adbulsalam signed in a Government Gazette. And after the pardon we nominated Obasanjo to become Nigeria’s next civilian president.
Apr82007