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| Alhaji Atiku Abubakar |
The
Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), yesterday, urged former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, to return to its
fold, following his resignation from the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The
opposition party, however, ruled out automatic presidential ticket to the
former vice president or any other aspirants, but assured them that a level
playing ground has been put in place to allow every member realise his or her
ambition. The PDP at a press conference addressed by its spokesman, Mr. Dayo Adeyeye, in Abuja, also raised
the alarm about alleged plot by some of its members to organise a parallel
national convention on December 9.
The
party praised Atiku for realising his mistakes in defecting to the APC in the
first instance, based on empty promises, adding: “Atiku,
who was one of the founding fathers, contested and won elections as governor of
Adamawa State on the platform of the PDP. However and unfortunately, in 2013,
he was deceived into believing that there was a platform that would correct all
the ills in the PDP and that it could create an Eldorado in Nigeria. I believe
they deceived people like Atiku because we had challenges in our party at that
point in time and they went and joined the new party called the APC, which
every Nigerian has now seen is a fallacy.”
Declaring
that the PDP remains open to Atiku to join, Adeyeye said: “It is human to make mistakes because we are not infallible.
We have no knowledge of what will happen in the future. Human beings can always
be deceived. But in John 8: 32, the Bible says ‘And you shall know the truth
and the truth shall set you free.’ I believe Atiku has come to know the truth,
like he said in the statement that he has now known the truth, that the APC is
not what they call themselves, that APC is not a better platform.”
The
PDP said it believes Atiku has seen the truth and the truth has now set him
free, adding: “Being a founding father and because we
have an umbrella that is big enough to accommodate everybody, he could simply
return. PDP is a democratic party. PDP is a free party and was conceived for
all Nigerians and is free from all religious, ethnicity and geographical
divisions. It has capacity to accommodate everybody. Our doors are open for him
to come back to his home without any precondition. He is free to come back,
like every other Nigerian, and we want to appeal to those who have not seen the
truth and we are praying that they will soon see the truth, so that the truth
will set them free. And as soon as they are free, let them come back.”
On the
alleged plot by some elements in the party to convene a parallel convention,
Adeyeye said: “The National Caretaker Committee (NCC)
has uncovered plans by some unscrupulous members of our party to hold a
parallel national convention in December 9. This is totally uncalled for and a
complete act of sabotage. Those making such plans cannot be said to be honest
members of our party. They are not patriotic, but just out to destroy our
party.”
According
to Adeyeye, the plan was unnecessary, as the NCC has been working very hard to
carry all members and supporters along in all the preparations for the
convention. “One of the steps taken by the leadership
is to make available and in good time, the comprehensive names of all the
delegates to all the aspirants before the convention. We, therefore, see no
reason for any honest member to want to disrupt our programmes, except they are
of course working for the ruling APC,” he added.
He
also accused the APC of planning to destabilise the convention, adding: “Apart from the internal fighting within the APC, one of the
reasons why the party postponed its national convention to next year was to
enable it to monitor closely our convention, with a view to destabilising our
party ahead of the 2019 general elections. The planned parallel convention is
one of those ideas of the APC to create division amongst members of our party.”(Guardian)
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