Why Atiku Ditched South-East For Vice Presidential Candidate – Kenneth Okonkwo

A chieftain of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Atiku Abubakar, Kenneth Okonkwo, has clarified that no individual from the South-East was qualified to be chosen as the running mate to the party’s 2027 presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar.

Naija News reports that Okonkwo, speaking on Channels Television, admitted a preference for the South-East but stated that they were not registered members of the ADC before the primary election.

According to him, South-East was thrown into confusion after the exit of former Governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi, from the ADC.

Okonkwo also refuted claims of opposing the selection of former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, as the party’s vice presidential candidate.

Asked if he supports Amaechi as the vice presidential candidate of the ADC, he said, “First and foremost, he is the choice of the party and everybody that is a loyal party member.

“I said I expected that the Vice President should come from South-East. It was a geopolitical expression, not the person of anybody, and of course I understood the limitations within the Electoral Act 2026 Remember, for anybody to be eligible to contest, you must have been a member 21 days before the primary, so the people from the South-East that I would have preferred, strictly speaking, were not even registered members, so we are restricted.

“Rotimi Amaechi, Hayatu-deen, Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi, these were the people that were showing interest to contest the presidential election, and then when Peter Obi left, South-East was thrown into confusion, and you have to pick a vice president that has elicited interest that he wants to embark on the onerous duty of campaigning around the nation.

“Amaechi got up to 500 and something voters in the primary, you cannot alienate them. What I was agitating is that even if you have constraints, you ought to get the people of South-East and sit down with them and say, look, these are my constraints. Then they will know what they will present to their people.

“Atiku was not in Nigeria when the party made the announcement; he travelled, so when he came in, he did the needful. If you recall, and that is the beauty of this great democrat. When he came in, everything was halted. When he came in, he went into dialogue, called all the parties.”