Atiku also called on Obi to dialogue with Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on how to reclaim the victory from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC)
By Kehinde Okeowo
Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has admitted that Labour Party (LP) candidate, Peter Obi took chunk of votes from his party’s traditional strongholds of South-East and South-South.
He, however, argued that the votes Obi garnered from the two geo-political regions were not enough to make him the president of the country.
Atiku made the comment during a press conference in Abuja on Thursday, a day after Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) was declared the winner of Saturday’s exercise.
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The former vice president called on the former Anambra State governor to dialogue with the PDP on how to reclaim the victory from the ruling APC.
He said, “At the time Peter decided to leave PDP and join Labour Party, we had not even began our primary process so the question of whether he was going to get the ticket or not did not arise.
“Yes, agreed and it is a fact that he took our votes from the south-east, south-south but that of course will not make him a president.
“You all know that to be a president in this country you need votes from everywhere so as far as I’m concerned, Peter is welcome to dialogue with PDP. We are ready to dialogue with him.”
The PDP candidate also berated the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) over the conduct of the elections, accusing it of shattering the dreams and aspirations of Nigerians.
Tinubu polled a total of 8,794,726 votes to defeat PDP’s Atiku Abubakar, who came second after scoring 6,984,520 votes, while LP’s Peter Obi came third, polling 6,101,533 votes.