Confusion in Atiku’s camp, as loyalists lament neglect, oppression

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By Olugbenga Salami

No fewer than 100 support groups of Atiku Abubakar  Presidential Campaign Organization, APCO, have protested over alleged neglect by certain officials of the organization “who stand as a clog in the wheel” of  Atiku’s political progress.

The protesters, under the aegis of Aggrieved Atiku Support Groups, (AASG), on Monday said they were parts of the support and solidarity groups that purchased the presidential aspiration form for the People’s Democratic Party, (PDP), candidate but decried the way they are being treated like voluntary groups without any recognition or appreciation for their efforts.

ROYAL NEWS reports that some of their placards read: “We say no to monkey dey work, baboon dey chop”, “We say no to total neglect. We are not mere volunteers!” and “We demand face to face talk with His Excellency Atiku Abubakar”.

Addressing journalists on the development, chairman of the aggrieved supporters, Mr. Osaratin Godspower, said “it is opprobrious, vituperative, disparaging and the highest level of deprecatory language of such officials to disdainfully referred to His Excellency’s support groups who risked their lives and worked tirelessly to ensure that he emerged the PDP flag bearer for the 2019 presidential election as mere volunteers”.

 “This disparaging language used to address these men and women of proven integrity has the tendency of affecting negatively the effective mobilisation of voters for PDP, an opposition party, towards the 2019 general elections.

“This unguided language is uncalled for as it can water down zeal and moral of the teaming supporters of His Excellency, Atiku Abubakar”, he said.

Godspower, however, declared that their “meekness is not weakness, neither is it sickness and humility is not stupidity”.

The chairman further said “no to the obnoxious philosophy of ‘monkey dey work, baboon dey chop”, adding “We say no to total neglect of support groups. We say no to idiosyncrasy of use and dump. We say no to a microscopic few at APCO to seat on top of the funds released to support groups for their own personal interest”.

He therefore demanded immediate meeting/interactive session Atiku himself to address the shortcomings, a letter of recognition to all support groups, integration of the groups into APCO with responsibility to function while independent office be created to accommodate all the groups.

The chairman also demanded that necessary incentive should be accorded to all support groups that have been neglected over the time in addition to creating a situation room for them to face any eventuality.

Earlier, the secretary of the aggrieved groups, Mr. Frankline Exe, said many of their leaders have been spending their personal funds to run the groups while few individuals at APCO have been wasting funds for meant for mobilisation towards the next year’s general elections.

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