8th October, 2023
By Isa Isawade
Former Vice President of Nigeria and presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 general elections, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar unwittingly indicated, during his press conference in Abuja on Thursday, that he along with his former boss, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo manipulated the 2003 elections in the Southwest in order to replace governors of the states with PDP candidates.
Atiku said at the conference while feeding questions from journalists that he was the one who saved the then Lagos State Governor Bola Tinubu, who is now the president of Nigeria, from being rigged out like his colleagues in the region.
Atiku revealed that when then President Obasanjo wanted the PDP to take over the Southwest states he insisted that Lagos should be spared.
“I said, leave Lagos alone,” he said.
This revelation has reminded Nigerians of the heist of the 2023 election under Obasanjo and Atiku’s watch.
It has also given credence to the general belief that the then Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Chief Bola Ige, SAN, a principled and uncompromising political heavyweight in Southwest, was removed from circulation in 2001 by the nation’s authorities in order to pave way for the PDP to have a field day in the rigging of 2003 general election.
According to the Bola Ige Centre for Justice, Atiku’s revelation is a confession of their undemocratic and cruel acts against the country.
“Atiku has confirmed that the 2003 general election was massively rigged. This buttresses the earlier statement of our most outstanding mentor in Civil Societies, the African 1st Nobel Laurette, Prof Wole Soyinka, who described the PDP in December 2001 after Bola Ige’s assassination as ‘A Nest of Killers’.
“As functional Southwest Youth Leader in the Party under the leadership of late Chief (Senator) Ayo Fasanmi and major youth Actor in Lagos State through the Tinubu for 2nd term Campaign Organisation, the Independent Campaign Group (ICG) located at Aromire, off Allen Avenue, Ikeja, Lagos State, during the 2003 electioneering Campaign, I knew very well how we fought very hard under the able leadership of former Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu to retain only Lagos State out of the 6 Southwest States,” Comrade Awa Bamiji, President of the Bola Ige Centre for Justice said in a press statement on Friday.
He recalled that Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ondo and Ekiti States were being controlled by the Alliance for Democracy (AD) Governors, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Aremo Segun Osoba, Alhaji Lam Adeshina, Chief Bisi Akande, Chief Adebayo Adefarati and Chief Niyi Adebayo, respectively before the Obasanjo/Atiku’s onslaught on democracy that saw all the mentioned governors out of their seats, except Bola Tinubu of Lagos.
“It is no secret how this epic battle was fought and its attendant and well deserved 2nd term victory of former Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu. The reason our dear brother and good friend, Mr Akin Ekundayo, later authored a book titled “Tinubu: The Last Man Standing” which was publicly presented the same year 2003 in Lagos State,” Awa Bamiji said.
According to him, what Atiku is going through “is nothing but the real law of Kamal or retribution coming into play”.