January 3, 2007
Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar is planning to return to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), a party that expelled him last year in the wake of his political face-off with the former president, Olusegun Obasanjo. P.M. News can authoritatively reveal that Atiku’s return to the PDP, of which he was a co-founder in 1998, is almost complete and will be consummated in the next few weeks.
Sources told P.M. News that Atiku has been in consultations with President Umar Yar’Adua on this planned return and one of the conditions to facilitate the move has been fulfilled by Yar’Adua with the sending of Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes, on study leave to the Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies, in Kuru, Jos. It is believed that the course may be a way by Aso Rock to ease Ribadu out of the EFCC job.
P.M. News sources said Atiku has personally applauded the action by the president and declared a truce.“Atiku cannot forgive Ribadu over his role in his political battle with his former boss, with the EFCC offering itself to be used to humiliate him and scuttle his presidential ambition under the banner of the PDP”. In the run up to the 2007 poll, the EFCC had come out with an indictment of Atiku over mismanagement of the finances of the Petroleum Trust Development Fund, then under Atiku’s supervision. Atiku’s spirited fight that the indictment was a witchhunt did not stop Obasanjo from ensuring that Atiku was expelled from the PDP and excluded from running for the presidency on the PDP platform.
Sidelined, Atiku ran the race on the platform of the new party, called the Action Congress. In the April election, criticised to be the worst in Nigeria’s history, falling short of international and Nigerian standards, the PDP claimed massive victory, pushing Atiku to a distant third place in the presidential election. Atiku’s Action Congress was also only allowed to retain the state of Lagos and rigged out in many states.
Atiku went to the tribunal to challenge the victory of Yar’Adua.
The Election Petition Tribunal has commenced hearing on Atiku’s petition and the former vice president has submitted many bags of evidence to the tribunal to back his claim that the election was rigged in favour of President Yar’Adua.
According to our sources, following the reconciliation between Atiku and Yar’Adua, the former VP’s petition at the election tribunal may be withdrawn any time from now.
P.M. News sources said returneeAtiku may vie for the position of chairman Board of Trustees of the PDP, a position now being occupied by former president and Atiku’s estranged boss, Olusegun Obasanjo.
“Atiku wants to give OBJ the Zuma treatment at the convention of the party’, said a source close to the deal, referring to the recent convention of the ruling African National Congress in South Africa, where a disgraced former vice-president, Jacob Zuma, defeated the sitting president Thabo Mbeki in the race for the leadership of the party.
It was not clear this morning, what will be the fate of the Action Congress, when Atiku finally makes the cross-over. But a political source said Atiku’s move may eventually lead to the formation of two broad based political parties in Nigeria, with the PDP itself being dissolved or metamorphosing into a new political group and the rump of OBJ faithfuls being left in the cold.
Sources told P.M. News that Atiku has been in consultations with President Umar Yar’Adua on this planned return and one of the conditions to facilitate the move has been fulfilled by Yar’Adua with the sending of Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes, on study leave to the Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies, in Kuru, Jos. It is believed that the course may be a way by Aso Rock to ease Ribadu out of the EFCC job.
P.M. News sources said Atiku has personally applauded the action by the president and declared a truce.“Atiku cannot forgive Ribadu over his role in his political battle with his former boss, with the EFCC offering itself to be used to humiliate him and scuttle his presidential ambition under the banner of the PDP”. In the run up to the 2007 poll, the EFCC had come out with an indictment of Atiku over mismanagement of the finances of the Petroleum Trust Development Fund, then under Atiku’s supervision. Atiku’s spirited fight that the indictment was a witchhunt did not stop Obasanjo from ensuring that Atiku was expelled from the PDP and excluded from running for the presidency on the PDP platform.
Sidelined, Atiku ran the race on the platform of the new party, called the Action Congress. In the April election, criticised to be the worst in Nigeria’s history, falling short of international and Nigerian standards, the PDP claimed massive victory, pushing Atiku to a distant third place in the presidential election. Atiku’s Action Congress was also only allowed to retain the state of Lagos and rigged out in many states.
Atiku went to the tribunal to challenge the victory of Yar’Adua.
The Election Petition Tribunal has commenced hearing on Atiku’s petition and the former vice president has submitted many bags of evidence to the tribunal to back his claim that the election was rigged in favour of President Yar’Adua.
According to our sources, following the reconciliation between Atiku and Yar’Adua, the former VP’s petition at the election tribunal may be withdrawn any time from now.
P.M. News sources said returneeAtiku may vie for the position of chairman Board of Trustees of the PDP, a position now being occupied by former president and Atiku’s estranged boss, Olusegun Obasanjo.
“Atiku wants to give OBJ the Zuma treatment at the convention of the party’, said a source close to the deal, referring to the recent convention of the ruling African National Congress in South Africa, where a disgraced former vice-president, Jacob Zuma, defeated the sitting president Thabo Mbeki in the race for the leadership of the party.
It was not clear this morning, what will be the fate of the Action Congress, when Atiku finally makes the cross-over. But a political source said Atiku’s move may eventually lead to the formation of two broad based political parties in Nigeria, with the PDP itself being dissolved or metamorphosing into a new political group and the rump of OBJ faithfuls being left in the cold.
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