Former governor of Anambra State Peter Obi has denied insinuations that he is avoiding former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar ahead of the 2027 presidential election.

Obi who is a presidential aspirant under the platform of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), made the remarks on in Cape Town, South Africa, on the sidelines of the Spier Dialogue 2026, a pan-African governance forum.

According to him, “There are very few human beings who are as close as I am to Atiku. So I can’t be running from him. This man is my very respected leader and elder brother. I don’t run from him. Never. It has nothing to do with running from anybody. I’ve never run from anybody. I just believe that I do things differently.”

This is coming as both men who had initially jointly adopted the African Democratic Congress (ADC) as a coalition platform to challenge President Bola Tinubu in the 2027 election have gone their different ways.

Obi joined the ADC in January  with Atiku welcoming him and describing the development as a landmark moment in Nigerian political coalition-building.

This, however, did not hold as Obi said his decision to leave was not due to personal issues with Atiku or party chairman David Mark, but was driven by unresolved internal conflicts and recurring legal disputes that had distracted the party from national issues.

He and Kwankwaso subsequently defected to NDC and called for the cessation of litigation-driven politics.