Ahead of commencement of political campaigns, a coalition of Atiku Abubakar support groups yesterday raised alarm over plot by the All Progressives Congress (APC) to destabilise them.
The groups under the aegis Atiku Presidential Campaign Organisation (APCO) explained that they are united, intact and ever passionate with one agenda in mind, to ensure landslide victory for the Atiku/Obi ticket by February 2019.
Addressing newsmen on Monday, the National Leader of the coalition and the National Coordinator of Project Atiku 2019, Rev. Emmanuel Olorunmagba, disclosed that the coalition is made up of 22 groups, warning that those planning the downfall of the Atiku groups would fail.
He said: “Both the master-minder and the sponsors of the propaganda against APCO have failed woefully in their attempt to blackmail Atiku and APCO.
“Nigerians should expect more funny and dirty games from the desperate APC. But we assert again, that they will continue to fail.
“We are all not ignorant of the devices of APC, let’s not fall prey of their machinations at any point, because they will still come up with other schemes as this has failed.”
Describing Atiku’s campaign as the movement of the people, by the people and for the people, Olorunmagba said that there is no friction in the groups, adding, “it is pertinent to make certain points clear at this juncture to correct the APC sponsored fellow and his cohorts that issued misleading statements in an attempt to paint the hard working H. E Otunba Gbenga Daniel led Atiku Presidential Campaign Organisation (APCO) black and to hoodwink those who don’t have adequate information about the relationship between APCO and Atiku Support Groups.
“Ordinarily we wouldn’t have responded to the ranting of the propagandist that is only acting scripts drafted by the opponents who are his paymasters.
“It will be foolhardy for any genuine support group to allege been used and dumped by His Excellency, Atiku Abubakar when even the main campaign has not started as INEC has not even lifted ban on campaign.
“A rational thinking person can only allege to have been used and dumped if he/she was assigned specific tasks during the campaign and the assigned tasks were well carried out, and till the entire campaign ended he/she is not compensated in any way for the jobs ‘well done’.
“We want to categorically and fundamentally assert at this point that the real supporters of Atiku are those who, out of love for him and passion to liberate this country from the shackles of bad governance, voluntarily set up support groups to contribute their quota towards his victory in the February presidential election; and not those who erroneously assume that setting up an Atiku support group is another get-rich-quick scheme.”
He, however, disclosed that a director and a deputy director have been appointed to oversee the affairs of support groups by registering them, maintaining a database for them, ensuring they are well coordinated and work towards how to carry them along in the main campaign.
“Many groups have been registered and more are still registering. And as each group is registered, the details are included in the database. And even the hard copy of information about groups registered before the primary is available in APCO office for group leaders that want to check,” he said.
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