I don't see Atiku winning in Northeast - Abubakar Kari

• Published date: 14 January 2023
• Publication title: Nigeria - The Nation

Abubakar Inuwa Kari is the Director Contact and Mobilisation for Tinubu/Shettima Presidential Campaign organisation in North East Zone. In this interview with Sola Shittu in Gombe, Kari said the PDP candidate former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, has nothing on ground to convince the North East Zone to vote for him. Excerpts.

HOW far have you gone with the presidential campaign in the North East Zone?

We have gone very far, that I can tell you. You know we have a very peculiar situation in the North East Zone because the major opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP candidate, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar is from the zone. Also, the running mate to our own presidential candidate, Senator Kashim Shettima, is from the zone but by and large Asiwaju's chance in the North-East is very good and we are going to defeat Atiku in the North East Zone. In all honesty, I don't see Atiku clearly winning any state apart from Adamawa and possibly Taraba. But we are going to beat him outstandingly in all the other states.

Are you saying he is going to be defeated in Gombe in the coming election?

In the 2015 general election we defeated PDP here in Gombe. In the 2019 election we defeated PDP in Gombe. I think he just got nearly 25 percent of the votes cast and am assuring you that this time around, he is not going to get 25 percent. The PDP is already dead in Gombe State. We have three senators. W e won all the House of Representatives seats and we won 20 out of the 24 seats in the House of Assembly election. So the issue of whether we are going to beat PDP in Gombe State is not even in question. Gombe today is an APC stronghold and we are going to defeat PDP hands down.

Do you see Tinubu having a landslide victory in the February presidential election?

I see Asiwaju winning this election at the first ballot hands down. Let's look at the analysis clearly, the North West will go APC, the South West will definitely go APC, the North East and Central will also go APC. We are talking of four solid zones going for APC and we are going to make a very solid impact in the South South and South East. I'm sure even if we are not going to win, we will get a very comfortable margin in Edo, Delta and other states in the South South. In the South East, we are sure of winning at least two states there. So it's going to be a landslide victory. I have no doubt about that.

So Senator Kashim Shettima will be able to deliver the zone against all odds?

Yes, I see Shettima bringing...