Former presidential candidate of African Democratic Congress (ADC), Dumebi Kachikwu, has claimed ex-Labour Party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi, is being pressured to drop his 2027 presidential ambition.

Speaking at a press conference on Friday, Kachikwu claimed that former President Goodluck Jonathan offered Peter Obi a slot of Coordinating Minister of the Economy if the former Anambra State governor withdraws from the 2027 race to back him.

According to him, Northern elites have drafted Jonathan into the presidential race to weaken the South, adding that Obi was also told that he cannot get Northern votes because he is an Ibo man.

“In order to weaken the South, they have now drafted in former President Jonathan into the race who is alleged to be offering Peter Obi the position of Coordinating Minister of the Economy for him to support his ambition,” he said.

He accused former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and a few northern elites of using the “weapons of region, religion, tongue, tribe and poverty as they convince millions of poor Northerners that a southern President Tinubu hates them and is the cause of their poverty.

“On a daily basis they are spreading deliberate falsehoods against not only President Tinubu but against all potential southern aspirants for the Office of President. A Peter Obi has been told in very clear terms that he will never get northern votes as an Ibo man and as such he should accept to be Atiku’s running mate.”

He called on all Nigerians to resist Atiku and his co-travellers who don’t believe in an equitable Nigeria.

“We must all come to equity with clean hands and sincerity of purpose.

“We don’t burn our houses because we want to kill rats and cockroaches; sometimes we just need to make our houses clean so that rats and cockroaches leave on their own.

“My earnest prayer is that Nigeria will soon work for every one of us,” he said.