The presidential candidate of the African Action Congress – AAC – Omoyele Sowore – said former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar used to send him documents with which he fought his former boss – Pres. Olusegun Obasanjo – when they were in office.
Sowore said he received the documents through Garba Shehu who’s now the senior special assistant on media and publicity to Pres. Muhammadu Buhari.
Shehu was a special assistant on media to Atiku then.
Sowore made the revelation in an interview with Arise TV to counter Atiku’s last week’s statement that he knew nothing about Nigeria because he lives overseas and would only visit it during elections.
The rights activist said he has only contested for the office of President once in 2019 and has never left the country ever since.
“He mixed up a number of things,” Sowore said. “I think he is losing memory, otherwise, he would have known that I have never, at any point, left the issues concerning Nigeria. In fact, for him and others, I was a source of news while they were in office – that means in the government.”
He added: “In fact, when Garba Shehu used to work with him as SA, they used to send me documents from the inside so as to counter Obasanjo in those days when they were in each other’s neck. I’m revealing it for the first time
“My first time contesting in Nigeria was 2019 and I’ve not left since then. I’ve not left. I’ve been here since that time. But, he has left each time he contested. This is going to be his seventh time contesting.
“I started contesting in 1992 as a student union president. Atiku also contested during the SDP primaries against Abiola. In the 1992/93 transition period, he lost. I won as the student union president. When the system collapsed, it was us that took over and made sure that we fought for that mandate. Atiku ran away. I don’t know where he was between the years 1993 and 1999.”
Atiku is the presidential flag-bearer of the Peoples Democratic Party in next year’s elections in Nigeria.
