Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has denied media reports indicating he has dumped the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for another political party in order to actualize his presidential bid.

Atiku in a statement by his Campaign Office on Sunday said he remained a front-line contender for the presidential ticket of the PDP, describing the report as malicious attempt to confuse the public about his aspiration ahead of the forthcoming primaries.

“The campaign office of former Vice President of Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar, debunks the story from a section of the media that frontline presidential aspirant for the 2019 election, Atiku has defected from the PDP.

“In the past two months, Atiku Abubakar has moved across states in the country consulting with stakeholders of the PDP and explaining to them his agenda encapsulated in the acronym JOBS: Jobs, Opportunity, Being united and Security) for Nigeria. The nationwide consultations continue this week with visits to the South West, North West and North Central zones of the country.

“Atiku's passion and commitment to winning the PDP primaries is without any compromise and to assume that he will abandon the hard work he has done with the positive results he is getting from the stakeholders of the party is, to say the least preposterous and unthinkable.

“The Campaign calls on supporters of Atiku to remain steadfast and see the contrived news of defection as an attempt to distract him from the set task of winning the PDP ticket and the 2019 presidential election by the grace of God,” the Campaign Organisation said.

• Sourced from a Daily Trust report