A member of the Northern Elders Forum, Alhaji Seidu Baba, has said the forum has not adopted the Peoples Democratic Party presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, as a consensus candidate.
Baba made the clarification on Saturday at a news conference in Abuja.
According to him, though, Atiku had been scheming to be endorsed as the sole candidate of the North, NEF had not endorsed him.
He dismissed the claims that the NEF’s 10th anniversary was to adopt Atiku as the consensus candidate for the North, “Atiku has no credentials to be a sole northern presidential candidate.
“There was an attempt to cajole and even force the NEF to adopt him (Atiku), which shows how desperate he is.
“Many people believe, that although the Governor of Kaduna State, Malam Nasir El-rufai, was condemning northern elders, it is believed, his real target was Atiku Abubakar.
“There is no way Atiku can be a northern candidate because he does not know them and we do not know him.
“It is believed Atiku got wind of his rejection the reason he failed to show up at the NEF assembly and could not send any representative.
“Atiku has not been seen as somebody who is close to the North, because he has not been fair to us. He is somebody that has his base outside the North.”
NAN
