Endorse Atiku? Blatant lie! —Ezekwesili’s Red Card Movement

A group, the Red Card Movement, has denied claims that it had endorsed the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar in Saturday’s election.

The group, co-founded by the former presidential candidate of the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN), Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, said Atiku represents “bad politics, bad leadership and governance failure.”

The group via a statement issued on Sunday by the co-conveners, Michael Ogundana, explained that the purported endorsement emanated from a certain Tony Akabuno who used to have access to its Twitter handle and Gmail account.

They said, “Our attention has been drawn to a press conference called by certain former members of the RCM. These group of individuals made several wild statements purportedly on behalf of the movement to the effect that the RCM has dissociated itself from the Convener – Obiageli “Oby” Ezekwesili and decided to endorse the candidature of Atiku Abubakar of the PDP for the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 2019 elections.

“That is a blatant lie! Nothing could be farther from the truth. We hereby inform the general public to disregard any recent postings on the @redcardmng twitter handle of the movement and via the Gmail account. A certain Tony Akabuno has abused privileged access by virtue of his position at the time to hijack these communication mediums.

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“We are working to stop this criminality and reclaim the mediums. We wish you all free, fair and successful elections. The RCM currently led by its eight out of the previous ten co-Conveners wishes to state unequivocally that it has not endorsed and can never endorse any one of the two old order dominant parties of APC and PDP against which it mobilized citizens over a one-year period since being convened January 2018.

“The political jobbers are brazenly propagating falsehoods as part of their ignoble venture of seeking to sell out the movement to Atiku Abubakar and the PDP. Our movement perceives Atiku Abubakar of the PDP and Muhammadu Buhari of the APC as icons of bad politics, bad leadership and governance failure. They both belong among the failed old order political class that we seek to replace with a new political order for Nigeria to make meaningful progress.”

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