The National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Iyiorcha Ayu, has boasted that its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, will shock Nigerians during the 2023 elections by winning with a landslide margin of seven million votes.

He stated this while speaking at a stakeholders’ meeting held on Wednesday at the Multi-Purpose Indoor Sports Hall, Bauchi.

Atiku had earlier received thousands of defectors from the All Progressives Congress and other political parties, at a ceremony held the same day at the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa Stadium, Bauchi.

It was gathered that Abubakar was flanked by his running mate, Ifeanyi Okowa; the National Chairman of the party, Iyiorcha Ayu; Chairman of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum and the Director-General of the Presidential Campaign Council and Sokoto State governor, Aminu Tambuwal and former Vice President Namadi Sambo.

Former governors of Jigawa, Sule Lamido; Adamawa, Boni Haruna and Gombe, Ibrahim Dankwambo; former Senate President, Bukola Saraki; among other dignitaries, were also present.

However, none of the governors and the PDP chieftains loyal to the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, was in attendance at the rally.

Addressing the stakeholders from the North-East, Ayu said that the PDP did not want to be strong on social media nor did it want to be strong based on manipulated images on television.

He, however, confessed that he had fears that the venue of the rally would be empty with people refusing to attend.

He said, “While we were coming here today, I was apprehensive that perhaps, when we come, the North-East will not come out. A political party is the people, it is not just the leaders, sometimes, we lay too much emphasis on the leaders.

“Today, we see that the PDP is the strongest party in Nigeria. Those who have been building imaginary rallies; today, it was not a rally, it was a reception but we saw the number of people that came out like bees. That is to tell you that the PDP is strong on the ground, we don’t want to be strong on social media, we don’t want to be strong only on manipulated images on television, we want to see the real people.”

Ayu admonished the people to come out en masse and vote for all the candidates of the PDP from the State Assembly to the President in order to shame the enemies of the party who had been doing all they could to divide the party and had been lying that the party was divided.

“And today, it was clear that the PDP is a strong party. There are enemies of the party who are determined to cause division among us, who are telling lies about divisions in the PDP.

“I want to assure you that they will be disappointed because at the end of the day, this party will come up en masse and vote for all our candidates from bottom to top, not from top to bottom but from the bottom to the top – all our House and National Assembly candidates, and all our governors will come back to office.

“And of course, having stayed out of power for eight years, the PDP is marching massively to Aso Villa with President Atiku Abubakar. He will resume back to the place where he has experience there as a Vice President and assisted ably, by Vice President Ifeanyi Okowa,” he stated.

The PDP National Chairman added that: “In a presidential election, if you don’t win Bauchi, you can’t win the presidency, and we are very sure that with what we saw today; the massive mobilisation that has been done, we are certainly on our way to victory.

“Atiku is your son, the North-East has never had a President before, and yet, when democracy started, the North-East led the way with Alhaji Tafawa Balewa. Power is returning to the North-East, vote for your son, come out en masse, it is not enough to come for the rally.

“All of you should have a Permanent Voter Card make sure you campaign at your polling unit, don’t campaign only at rallies, we don’t want people in Abuja, everybody must go back home to his polling unit. On that day (election day), we will shock Nigerians, the victory margin is going to be seven million votes.

“Atiku Abubakar will move to the Villa and we will rescue the country from all the damages that the present government has done. We have suffered insecurity in the North-East, you are suffering from hunger, you are suffering from diseases. The PDP under the leadership of President Atiku Abubakar will correct these ills.”

The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) has arrested a 26-year-old Nigerian serial robber, Charles Chukwuma Onwuemelie popularly known as the “Blue Cloth Bandit.”

LAPD allegedly accused Onwuemelie, who was arrested on Wednesday, of 68 armed robberies that have gone down in the LA area since October 2021.

According to Fox News, Onwuemelie was dubbed “Blue Cloth Bandit” by LAPD in its press statement because he allegedly “used a blue cloth to cover the handgun used in the robberies that occurred at gas stations, 7-11s, and Walmarts.”

“The suspect would conceal himself by wearing different hats, a face mask, and rubber gloves. The same vehicle was used in many of the robberies, and the same suspect was linked to the robberies based on several factors.”

Blue Cloth Bandit’s last attempt happened on September 23, when detectives devised a strategy to use surveillance and serve a search warrant.

Surveillance footage released by the LAPD disclosed that the suspect appeared to acquire items at a store before he revealed his gun enclosed by a blue cloth.

He was also seen in the video wearing blue gloves and a hat that hid his face.

Police retrieved a firearm and other evidence from the scene of Onwuemelie’s latest alleged robbery linking him to the crime.

The suspect has been charged with 16 counts of a robbery that allegedly occurred within LA city limits, though officials expect the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department to file additional charges for various other robberies that seemingly occurred within the county.