Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in last Saturday’s election, has pleaded with international investors not to divest, following President Muhammadu Buhari’s reelection at the just concluded exercise.
Atiku decried the loss of N85 billion at the Nigerian Stock Exchange market as a result of the presidential election.
Consequently, he urged investors to be patient and keep faith with Nigeria, even as he was upbeat of claiming his mandate at the law court.
“And to the international investors and friends of Nigeria now pulling out of our country, I urge you to be patient and keep faith with the Nigerian people. Your quarrel is not with the Nigerian people, your quarrel is with those who stole their mandate. Please, do not punish people by divesting from Nigeria,” he stated at a press conference in Abuja on Wednesday.
This is his first press conference after his defeat at the just concluded presidential election.
The Peoples Democratic Party Presidential candidate who secured 11.2 million votes, was defeated by All Progressives Congress (APC) standard bearer, President Muhammadu Buhari who polled a total of 15.1 million votes.
The PDP chieftian had in the early hours of Wednesday rejected the election, insisting that he would seek legal redress in court.
He described the election as the worst in Nigeria in his last three decades in politics.
The election, he maintained, was marred with irregularities including militarisation of the process, manipulation of figures and disruption of the election in PDP strongholds.
“Let me say that I am not speaking as a member of PDP, I am speaking as a Nigerian when I said the electoral fraud perpetuated by the Buhari administration this past Saturday cannot produce a government of the people for the simple reason that it does not reflect the will of the Nigerian people,” he added.
OWEDE AGBAJILEKE, Abuja
