Owerri — Former vice-president, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has stated that the waiver given to him by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to run in the forthcoming presidential primaries would give him victory as the party's presidential candidate for the2011 polls.

Atiku spoke weekend when he paid a brief visit to his associates in Ngor Okpala Local government in Imo State on his way back from Enugu State where he went to deliver a lecture.

According to him, the party's decision to give him a waiver last Friday night marked his victory in the party as well as the victory to fly the party's flag in the 2011 presidential election, adding: “I assure my supporters across the country not to lose hope as the coast is clear because I have served this great country for eight years as the vice-president. Therefore, I have the requisite experience to pilot the affairs of the country as number one citizen.”

He urged those who are still dragging their feet to wake up and be part of the struggle to ensure success at the end.The former vice-president, who said that there can never be 2015 without 2011, urged his supporters to be committed to the cause and ensure that victory was actualised.

He used the visit to reaffirm his ambition to run for the presidential election come 2011, observing that there were certain individuals he had found to be competent in reaching out to delegates for the election and believed that all would be sorted out soon.

In his response the Imo State Coordinator of Atiku Campaign Organization, Chief Greg Egu, who played host to the former vice-president in his country home, Umuohiagu, Ngor Okpala, promised to mobilise people to give him support during the election.

Egu who represented Aboh Mbaise/Ngor Okpala Federal Constituency between 1999 and 2003 assured him 70 to 80 percent support of the people from the state, saying that the next presidential slot belonged to the North and not any other tribe in the country.
 He advised all his supporters not to lose hope but to come out en-mass to support the aspiration of the former vice president.