APC has not zoned me out of presidential race: Atiku

Atiku congratulates new national chairman of APC,John Oyegun. Source: Atiku Media Office

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar on Saturday refuted media reports that he had been tactically zoned out of the presidential race under the new zoning arrangement in the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Atiku in a statement by his media office described such reports “sponsored stories,” by a section of the media.

The statment quoted the former Vice President as saying at no time did the party's Convention Planning Committee or its recently-dissolved Interim National Executive Council (NEC) discuss the issue of zoning of elective offices outside the positions of leadership of the party which he said, were filled at the highly successful convention held on Friday.

“As for the presidential ticket, the position of all organs of the party is that it is open to all Nigerians irrespective of where they come from,” Atiku said.

The statement described as “a hatchet job for Aso Rock” a front page lead story in Saturday's edition of a newspaper titled “Atiku Zoned Out,” wondering why the presidency is scared of the prospect of Dr. Jonathan facing Atiku in 2015.

The former Vice President also accused the newspaper of abandoning principles and its responsibility to the public “by uncritically accepting and mechanically reproducing editorials, opinions and reports” from the Villa.

“Atiku's chances have never been better, given the climate of democracy and freedom in the APC,” said the media office.

The statement further disclosed that the former Vice President will at any moment from now be making a pronouncement on if, when and how he will be making a declaration.

Atiku appealled to all his well-wishers, supporters and the general public to disregard these false reports emanating from the presidency, which are designed to deter him from offering his services to Nigerians.