Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has come under fire over his statement at a political event.
It was reported that Atiku, during an Interactive Session with Arewa Joint Committee held on Saturday in Kaduna State, said Northerners need to vote for him because he is a Pan-Nigerian with a northern extraction that has built bridges across the country.
The former Vice President said Northerners do not need any Yoruba or Igbo candidate as the next President of the country in 2023.
He had said: “What the average Northerner needs is somebody who’s from the north and also understands that part of the country and has been able to build bridges across the country.
This is what the Northerner needs, it doesn’t need a Yoruba or Igbo candidate, I stand before you as a Pan-Nigerian of northern origin.”
Following the development, some Nigerians took to the micro-blogging platform, Twitter to slam the former Vice President for propagating ethnicity at the event.
While his supporters and PDP members defended the statement, saying the PDP presidential candidate was misquoted.
