Farouq Aliyu, the former Senate Minority Leader, has named some APC presidential candidates who, in his opinion, can defeat the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, in the upcoming general elections.
Former Rivers State Governor Chibuike Amaechi, former Lagos State Governor Bola Tinubu, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, and former Minister of State for Education, Dr. Emeka Nwajiuba are among those mentioned by the APC chieftain as candidates who can defeat Atiku.
Aliyu, on the other hand, emphasized that Atiku is no pushover, insisting that his party will never overlook the former Vice President.
He stated that the ruling party’s stakeholders will select the best candidate to defeat Atiku, but that the majority of APC candidates can actually defeat Atiku in the upcoming election.
“Atiku Abubakar is not somebody that you can ignore. It’s something that we’ll have to look at it critically, who among our aspirants can beat Atiku Abubakar,” he said on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Wednesday evening.
“Because we know him. We know what he can do and what he’s antics arre so we’re going to look at someone who can beat Atiku Abubakar. We know what to do to defeat Atiku Abubakar.
“Atiku Abubakar is not pushover or a candidate you can say, ‘ignore him’, no. We’re not going to ignore him or anybody from the PDP. Atiku Abubakar is certainly who we’re going to look at ‘ who among our aspirants can beat Atiku Abubakar’ .
“We have more than five aspirants that can bear Atiku Abubakar: Amaechi can, of course Bola Tinubu, Emeka Nwajiuba, Osinbajo and so many of them.
“Probably, there are two or three that can be a walkover for Atiku but majority of our aspirants can beat Atiku Abubakar. And look, we’re also the ruling party. We’re not going to sit down and allow a lot of things go by like that.
“We’ll do our home work to ensure that things are properly that Nigerians would vote for APC because of the things we’ve done.”