{"id":2832,"date":"2019-01-19T18:47:33","date_gmt":"2019-01-19T18:47:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.com\/nigeria\/?p=2832"},"modified":"2019-01-19T18:47:33","modified_gmt":"2019-01-19T18:47:33","slug":"breaking-atiku-withdraws-from-presidential-debate-carpets-buhari-apc-full-statement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/breaking-atiku-withdraws-from-presidential-debate-carpets-buhari-apc-full-statement","title":{"rendered":"BREAKING: Atiku withdraws from presidential debate, carpets Buhari, APC [Full statement]"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Former Vice President and presidential candidate of the People\u2019s Democratic Party (PDP) Atiku Abubakar, has withdrawn from the ongoing presidential debate.<\/p>\n<div class=\"code-block code-block-2\">\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-1524595905268-4\" data-google-query-id=\"CNSO4JDA-t8CFVmiewod0QMKDw\">\n<p>He lambasted President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for not attending, insisting there was no point taking part in the debate.<\/p>\n<p>A statement he released reads: \u201cWe came here for a Presidential debate, not a candidacy debate, and I, Atiku Abubakar can not challenge or question an administration where the man at the helm of the affairs of the nation is not present to defend himself or his policies.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAfter all you cannot shave a man\u2019s head in his absence. I do not believe in attacking a man who is NOT here to defend himself.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-2835\" src=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.com\/nigeria\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/01\/IMG-20190119-WA0033-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/upload\/sites\/3\/2019\/01\/IMG-20190119-WA0033-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/upload\/sites\/3\/2019\/01\/IMG-20190119-WA0033-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/upload\/sites\/3\/2019\/01\/IMG-20190119-WA0033.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs a leader and former vice president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, let me first apologise to all Nigerians, my fellow candidates and the moderator for the the APC Presidential Candidates absence in this debate. His non-appearance is a slight on ALL of us and our democracy.<\/p>\n<div class=\"code-block code-block-4\">\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-1524595905268-6\" data-google-query-id=\"CNaO4JDA-t8CFVmiewod0QMKDw\">\n<p>\u201cSecondly, with all due respect to my fellow candidates, Fela Durotoye, Oby Ezekwesili, Kingsley Moghalu and to the moderator and with all apologies to my Fellow Nigerians here and at home expecting an interesting debate, I regret that I will not be able to go on with this debate due to President Buhari\u2019s absence.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI however challenge the President Buhari to choose a date and time for a debate where he will be present and I will be there, hopefully with the other candidates as well.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThank you and God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"code-block code-block-20\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former Vice President and presidential candidate of the People\u2019s Democratic Party (PDP) Atiku Abubakar, has withdrawn from the ongoing presidential debate. He lambasted President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for not attending, insisting there was no point taking part in the debate. A statement he released reads: \u201cWe came here for a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":2834,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,29,14],"tags":[34,173,65,226],"class_list":["post-2832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-head-lines","category-policy","tag-apc","tag-parties","tag-pdp","tag-policy"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>BREAKING: Atiku withdraws from presidential debate, carpets Buhari, APC [Full statement] - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/breaking-atiku-withdraws-from-presidential-debate-carpets-buhari-apc-full-statement\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"BREAKING: Atiku withdraws from presidential debate, carpets Buhari, APC [Full statement]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Former Vice President and presidential candidate of the People\u2019s Democratic Party (PDP) Atiku Abubakar, has withdrawn from the ongoing presidential debate. 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