Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar on Friday said he asked that the tweet condemning the extra-judicial killing of Deborah Samuel, a student of Shehu Shagari College of Education in Sokoto, for alleged blasphemy, be taken down because it did not get his approval.
The presidential aspirant emphasised this during a visit to Edo State Governor Godwin Obaseki in pursuit of his presidential ambition.
Atiku attracted backlash when he deleted the tweet. Before taking the post down, some of his supporters threatened not to vote for him if he becomes the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party.
“Every tweet has to get my expressed approval but this one didn’t so I asked them to take it down,” he said.
“I took a stand about Sharia law and was abused, thrown stones at, but how long did it last? Despite that I didn’t change my position on that. I am not afraid to take a stand on critical issues.”
Atiku also stressed the importance of investment in education. “If you can recall what the PDP government did then while in power, we created the Tertiary Education Trust Fund,” he said.
“We also set up the Primary School Education Fund and Education Tax Fund to enable us (PDP Federal Government) provide sufficient money to both state and local governments to enable them to have sufficient money to invest in primary and secondary education.
“We also passed the law to make education compulsory for every Nigerian child, from primary to secondary schools.”
