All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate Bola Tinubu has urged people in the South-East to disregard the advice of former President Olusegun Obasanjo and PDP presidential contender Atiku Abubakar.
At a gathering for the APC presidential nomination on Wednesday in Enugu, Tinubu made the comments.
On the PDP platform, Obasanjo and Atiku held the positions of vice president and president of Nigeria from 1999 to 2007 respectively.
All Nigerian ethnic groups, particularly the Igbo, have been urged by Atiku to support him in the 2023 presidential election.
The former vice president asked South-East people to support him in a rally in Anambra State in December, claiming that he would act as "a stepping stone" for a future president of Nigeria to emerge from the region.
Obasanjo announced on January 1 his support for Peter Obi, the Labour Party's (LP) nominee for president in the impending 2023 election, in an open letter to young Nigerians.
At the occasion, Tinubu cautioned the Igbo not to place their trust in the couple since they had previously "deceived" the area.
“Don’t listen to them. Don’t believe them anymore. They have fooled you several times since 1999,” he said.
The APC candidate alleged President Obasanjo and his PDP successors broke their promise to construct the Second Niger Bridge.
He said that while they were in office, Obasanjo and Atiku were verbally insulting and accusing each other of embezzling money.
“They didn’t do it (Second Niger Bridge) for 16 years. They ate your money, abused themselves,” Tinubu remarked of previous PDP presidents.
“If you have forgotten, let me remind you: that bridge is completed by APC (government),” he stated.
The APC nominee insinuated that Obi was “deceived” by certain members of the PDP into switching parties from the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) to the PDP and then the LP so that he could run for president.
“They feel they want to vote Obi. They want to come back (to power). That’s how they deceived your brother when he left Okokorokoo and joined Labour (Party),” he explained.
The Igbo word for crowning a cock to mark the beginning of a new day is Okokorokoo. The APGA faithful frequently use this term.
The APGA seal depicts a cock against a yellow background inside a circle.
The ex-governor of Lagos State pleaded for voters to abandon other political groups and unite behind the APC to “use a broom to sweep away the dirty men and bloody foes” in Nigeria.
Tinubu urged the APC’s Southeast leaders to keep “sweating and working hard” for the upcoming election.
He declared, “There will be no praise for anybody until the party wins the election.
“I want you to sweat well for this party until you deliver victory until Bola Tinubu becomes the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“We will not give you but a slight clap or a soaked slice of bread,” the APC candidate pledged.