PDP apologises to int’l community over Tinubu’s Chatham House outing

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Presidential Campaign Organisation (PCO) has apologised to Nigerians and the international community for the “shame and embarrassing outing of the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, at Chatham House.

Spokesman of the Atiku PCO, Mr. Charles Aniagwu, at a news conference in Asaba, yesterday, said this became necessary because Tinubu, by his action, had denigrated the office of the President that he seeks to occupy and had brought immeasurable shame on Nigerians.

He said: “As a party and as a presidential campaign organisation, I want to, on behalf of my principal, Atiku Abubakar, apologise to the international community that that kind of disgrace is not who we are in Nigeria.

“For us in PDP, as a political party, beyond the fact that we have continued to engage with different stakeholders and Nigerians across all walks of life, our presidential candidate and his running mate are still very much ever ready to interface with Nigerians wherever they are, in terms of their geographical location or the ethnic group they belong or the class they find themselves, and we will continue to do so.

“In line with our party’s motto, we are quite convinced that power belongs to the people and that they represent the sovereign and as such, we will not take for granted the rights of Nigerians to scrutinise our candidate and to continue to ask questions as to what we are putting on the table.

“This is beyond the fact that our candidate has come up with his policy document, titled, ‘My Covenant With Nigerians’, which embodies policy priorities that the Atiku-Okowa government will deploy for the purpose of adding value to the lives of Nigerians.”

Aniagwu, who is Delta State Commissioner for Information, stated that Atiku and his running mate, Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, would continue to seek more ways for additional input from Nigerians.

He added: “I am happy that you have continued to monitor developments in our country. Yesterday, we were in Lafia and today, our presidential train is in Jos. Where and where has the APC been to, apart from the disgrace that was visited on all of us at Chatham House?

“We needed to render this apology, so that our children will not go for an international examination and think that it is the right thing to do to distribute examination questions for others to answer for them.

“Nigerians at any given time can stand their ground on any issue. So, we are making this apology on behalf of the APC, since they have not appreciated the shame they have brought to our wonderful country.”