Atiku wants to become president so bad, he'll leave the APC in order to realise that burning ambition.

Abdulsalam Abubakar, Atiku Abubakar  (Sahara Reporters)
Atiku's reputation as an alleged 'thief' has gone before him since Olusegun Obasanjo cut his then deputy to size between 1999 to 2007.

The strategy from Atiku's camp appears to be to  keep their candidate in the news well into the political party conventions of 2018 and 2019.

Atiku is a perennial presidential aspirant. He’s been looking for the top job since 1992. In 2014, he lost the APC presidential ticket to Muhammadu Buhari in Lagos. As a matter of fact, Atiku came third at the APC primary convention behind Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso and the incumbent president.