Atiku once depended on me to counter Obasanjo – Sowore

The presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC), Omoyele Sowore has revealed that former Vice President Atiku Abubakar used to send him documents to fight his former boss, President Olusegun Obasanjo when they were in office.

He said he got the documents through Garba Shehu, the current Senior Special Assistant, Media and Publicity to President Muhammadu Buhari who was a Special Assistant on Media to Atiku.

Sowore revealed this during a recent interview with Arise TV while reacting to Atiku’s allegations levelled against him that he usually leaves Nigeria after an election and knows nothing about power generation.

According to the rights activist, he has only contested for the office of President once in 2019 and has never left the country since then.

Sowore said: “He mixed up a number of things. I think he is losing memory, otherwise, he would have known, that I have never, at any point, left the issues concerning Nigeria. In fact, for him and others, I was a source of news while they were in office – that means in the government.

“In fact, when Garba Shehu used to work with him as SA, they used to send me documents from the inside. I’m revealing it from the first time so as to counter Obasanjo in those days when they were in each other’s neck.”

Speaking further, Sowore said: “My first time contesting in Nigeria was 2019 and I’ve not left since then. I’ve not left. I’ve been here since that time. But, he has left each time he contested. This is going to be his seventh time contesting.

“I started contesting in 1992 as a student union president. Atiku also contested during the SDP primaries against Abiola. In the 1992/93 transition period, he lost. I won as the student union president. When the system collapsed, it was us that took over and made sure that we fought for that mandate. Atiku ran away. I don’t know where he was between the years 1993 and1999.”