Atiku Abubakar
A former Vice-President, Atiku Abubakar, may return to the Peoples Democratic Party on Sunday (today), according to one of his associates, Mr. Ahmed Lawan.
Lawan, who is the Organising Secretary of the All Progressives Congress in Adamawa State, told one of our correspondents on Saturday that Atiku would formally register as a member of the PDP at his Jada ward 11, in Yola, the state capital.
He said Atiku’s return to his former party was based on the motivation he received from the PDP leadership towards the realisation of his ambition to contest the 2019 presidential election.
Lawan, however, warned, Atiku to have a rethink of his action because his resignation might mark the end of his political career.
He said, “He (Atiku) told the whole world that he was in the APC to stay, and that even if anything would make him to leave the APC, he would retire from politics.
He noted that Atiku did not see the possibility of defeating President Muhammadu Buhari in the primary of the APC.
He said, “He is making a grave mistake because Buhari has yet to make any statement as to whether he will contest the 2019 presidential election or not. So, why is he in a haste?”
Also, another associate of the former vice-president, Mr. Umar Ardo, who is a member of the PDP in the state, also confirmed to one of our correspondents that Atiku had made up his mind to join the PDP.
He accused Atiku of allegedly conniving with the national leadership of the PDP to hijack the party in the state.
He said, “Atiku knows that the real Adamawa PDP is not with him; that is why he connived with Ahmed Markafi (the PDP National Caretaker Committee chairman) to dissolve the exco and set up a new caretaker committee.”
Meanwhile, the Director General of the Atiku Abubakar Media Office, Mr. Paul Ibe, dismissed the report, that Atiku will return to the PDP on Sunday.
He, however, said the former vice-president was currently engaged in “a high level discussion that would enable him to return to the PDP.”
He said, “What I know is that there are ongoing discussions for him (Atiku) to return to the PDP. It is something that a timeline cannot be attached to. But I know that there are engagements in that direction.”
Also, Senator Rafiu Ibrahim (APC, Kwara South), has faulted the Governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, for downplaying Atiku’s exit from the ruling party. He described the resignation as a major threat to the APC in the 2019 presidential election.
“My opinion is, let us be strategic in the APC. We should not take it from the angle of the Governor of Kaduna State who said he (Atiku) is a serial defector. “ “This is how the problem with the PDP started. And whether you like it or not, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the Waziri of Adamawa, is not somebody you can take for granted.”
…I won’t follow Atiku to PDP – Adamawa gov
ALSO, the Adamawa State Governor Abubakar Bindow, has said he has no plan to join the former vice president to leave the APC.
The governor spoke through his Commissioner for Information, Ahmad Sajo, in a telephone interview on Saturday.
Sajo was reacting to specific question about whether or not the governor was planning to dump the APC as Atiku did on Friday.
He said, “Our governor has no plan to leave the APC. It has a lot of respect for the former vice-president but he is not leaving the APC.
“He was elected on the platform of the APC and he is focused on delivering on the mandate given to him on the party’s platform.”
