Onyekachi Eze 
Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, yesterday refuted Vice President Kashim Shettima claim that he benefited immensely from President Bola Tinubu’s political goodwill when he was facing persecution in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Shettima said at the opening of the Third Expanded National Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) Business Clinics in Ado Ekiti on Thursday: “When Atiku Abubakar was harassed in the PDP, it was Bourdillon he ran to for support and it was in Bourdillon that he got the needed support and later contested for the presidency of this country.”
However, in a statement by his media office, Atiku insisted that Tinubu benefited immensely from his goodwill. The ex-Vice-President said: “Truth be told, it was Tinubu that actually benefited immensely from Atiku’s goodwill.
But for Atiku’s support, hinged on his pro-democracy instincts and rule of law, Tinubu’s tenure as governor of Lagos would have been rough with a wide possibility of termination of his political career.
“For some time, and especially leading up to the 2023 election, there has been a deliberate attempt to distort the history of the politics of the early 4th Republic by ascribing the AC, the political platform that Atiku ran in 2007, as Tinubu’s party. “Nothing can be further from the truth. Vice President Shettima, obviously carried away with the euphoria of the unveiling of his official residence as VP, repeated the same lie.
“Shettima needs to be reminded that Atiku did not run under the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), but Action Congress (AC). “AC came out of a coalition of ACD (Advance Congress of Democrats), formed by mainly PDM members and other associates and Tinubu’s faction of Alliance for Democracy (AD).
“Moreover, Tinubu was not in a position to lend the platform to Atiku as erroneously being suggested as he (Atiku) was nominated by all the delegates from all the states. “Vice President Shettima obviously got carried away with the euphoria of the unveiling of his official residence as Vice President, repeating the same lie. “It will be appropriate for Vice President Shettima to refrain from making statements on subject matters on which he knows little or nothing about.”
