Former interim APC chairman, Bisi Akande, has continued to open up on some intrigues between Tinubu and other politicians.
According to Akande, former vice president Atiku Abubakar was always seeking for financial favour from the APC leader.
The revelations are contained in Akande’s autobiography, “My Participations”, which was launched in Lagos on Thursday, December 9
As Chief Bisi Akande, former Interim Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has claimed that ex-Vice-President Atiku Abubakar made financial demands from Bola Tinubu, national leader of the ruling party, when he took a shot at the highest office in the land in 2007.
Tinubu and Atiku are now APC and PDP’s presidential candidate respectively.
He made the revelation in his autobiography, “My Participations”, which was launched in Lagos on Thursday, Daily Trust reports.
Chief Bisi Akande has claimed that ex-Vice-President Atiku Abubakar made financial demands from Bola Tinubu. Photo: Femi Adesina
During the running battle with Obasanjo in 2007, Atiku defected from the PDP and clinched the AC presidential ticket.
In “My Participations”, his autobiography, Akande, who was also the national chairman of AC, narrated some behind the scenes incidents of the 2007 elections.
“In 2007, we formed a party, the AC, with Abubakar Atiku. We agreed that Atiku should be our presidential candidate and we had the understanding that he would run with Bola Tinubu. I was the chairman of the AC. One day, after we had nominated Atiku as our presidential candidate, one young man came and gave me a form from INEC. I told him I could not sign a blank form and that I, as the Chairman, must know the name that would be filled in it.
“The young man, Bashir Yusuf Ibrahim, must have been the organising right-hand man of Atiku. He was an active person from Kano. The following morning, he came again with Lawan Kaita. Kaita begged me and said it was Ben Obi’s whom Atiku had chosen as his running mate behind our back. So, I signed the form because I believed as the candidate, Atiku had the right to choose his running-mate. If I refused to sign, that would create a crisis.
“We believed that Atiku should have chosen his running mate from the AD even if he was no longer favourably disposed to Tinubu. With Atiku, the party would be strong in the North, but because of the preponderance of PDP in the South-East and the South-South, it would face more resistance in that area. Obasanjo was stepping down from the Presidency. Therefore, the Yoruba, even the few that benefitted from his arrogant rule, would no longer be obliged to vote for the PDP.
“Segun Osoba, Niyi Adebayo and Lam Adesina had earlier met Atiku and we proposed to him our choice of Tinubu, and he promised to come back to us. He gave us a date. On that date, we all assembled. Atiku came with Audu Ogbe, Tom Ikimi and Usman Bugaje.
“We proposed that Tinubu should be the running mate, though Tinubu was not at the meeting. Atiku would not give us an immediate answer. He said he wanted to have more consultations.
“Ikimi, Ogbe and others were all very strong against Tinubu, because they said it would mean a Muslim-Muslim ticket. We deadlocked over that. Atiku never said anything. We left the meeting. What prompted us was that anytime we said we needed money, Atiku would say ‘Bola, please help us’. Bola was the only one spending the money among us. The rest of us were poor. Tinubu also put all his energy and resources into the formation of the AC and we felt he deserved a spot on the ticket. We discussed with Bola on this and he said we should discuss with Atiku. It was after we were deadlocked that they brought me the blank form. So, Atiku ran with Obi and failed. Only Lagos State from South West voted for Atiku in all the states of Nigeria.”
APC chieftain Bisi Akande reveals Buhari’s failed promise to Tinubu in 2015 and how former Lagos governor reacted
Recall that Legit.ng had reported that Akande, on Thursday, December 9, narrated how President Muhammadu Buhari promised but failed to pick Asiwaju Bola Tinubu as his running mate in the 2015 election.
ThisDay reported that Akande who is also a former governor of Osun state made the revelation in his autobiography, “My Participations”, which was launched in Lagos on Thursday.
Chronicling the events that led to the eventual selection of Prof. Yemi Osinbajo as the running mate, Akande disclosed how Buhari who was then under pressure to drop the former Lagos governor, later reneged on the agreement.
