The presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, says he rescued former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar from his erstwhile principal, former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

For over a decade since leaving office in 2007, Atiku, who is also the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate in the forthcoming election, was at loggerheads with the former president.

Obasanjo however put aside his differences to endorse his two-term deputy in the 2019 presidential election. This however changed in 2023 when the Ogun-born statesman threw his weight behind Labour Party’s Peter Obi.

While campaigning in Uyo, Akwa Ibom on Monday, Tinubu took a swipe at PDP and its standard bearer in the February 25 poll.

“They [PDP] have no mandate; what they have is ice cream. It melted quickly. They are yeye people. Atiku, when we made him [vice] president – you said this, you said that,” he said, switching between English and Pidgin.

“Assets, our commonwealth, our patrimony, everything that we have, you sold it. We became skeletons. Atiku didn’t care – as vice president. I am the one who rescued him from Obasanjo who wanted to roast him like goat meat.

“The Niger Delta youths, you begged that time. He ran away to Dubai. When elections came again, he came for stomach infrastructure. He came to us in Lagos; we rehabilitated him and gave him the ticket.

“What did he do with it? He used it to collect money, wasted our ticket, and went back to Dubai.

“This time around, we said we are tired, we are not going to give you our vote again. He faced Obasanjo, and he failed. Buhari, he failed. He failed with Jonathan. He failed all classes.”