Senator Walid Jibrin, a former chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Board of Trustees (BoT), claims that Alhaji Atiku Abubakar's remark during an interactive session with Arewa groups in Kaduna was taken out of context.
In a statement released in Kaduna, he said that Alhaji Atiku Abubakar's remarks at the Arewa House through Kaduna were "seriously misquoted" since they were "widely and incorrectly distributed in the social media."
“Atiku is a typical Nigerian married to Yoruba and Igbo wives, he is a pan-African ,he was in Arewa House to seek the support of the North and to convince the South, especially Yoruba and Igbo on his becoming the president of Nigeria in 2023.”
“He needs the support of all tribal groups in Nigeria even though he comes from the North and that is why he was appealing to all northerners through the Arewa Joint Committee to convince all southern groups, especially Igbo and Yoruba to give him maximum support like the one given to former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Ebele Jonathan,
The ongoing interactive session was organised by the Arewa Joint Committee made up of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), Northern Elders Forum (NEF), Sir Ahmadu Bello Memorial Foundation (SABMF), Jamiyyar Matan Arewa (JMA) Arewa House (Centre for Historical Development and Research) and Arewa Research and Documentation Project to engage the presidential candidates of the PDP, APC, SDP, NNPP, LP and the PRP.