According to Naij.com Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has announced his defection from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
This was contained in a statement released on Friday, November 24.
There has been speculation that the former vice president will dump the ruling party for the PDP and he has finally confirmed this via a statement.
Atiku said the promised change of the APC failed to manifest which was why he was returning to the PDP.
Read full statement below:
Statement of resignation of His Excellency Atiku Abubakar (Waziri Adamawa) Vice President of Nigeria, 1999-2007 from the All Progressives Congress
On the 19th of December, 2013, I received members of the All Progressives Congress at my house in Abuja. They had come to appeal to me to join their party after my party, the Peoples Democratic Party, had become factionalized as a result of the special convention of August 31, 2013.
The fractionalization of the Peoples Democratic Party on August 31, 2013 had left me in a situation where I was, with several other loyal party members, in limbo, not knowing which of the parallel executives of the party was the legitimate leadership.
It was under this cloud that members of the APC made the appeal to me to join their party, with the promise that the injustices and failure to abide by its own constitution which had dogged the then PDP, would not be replicated in the APC and with the assurance that the vision other founding fathers and I had for the PDP could be actualized through the All Progressives Congress.
It was on the basis of this invitation and the assurances made to me that I, being party-less at that time, due to the fractionalization of my party, accepted on February 2, 2014, the hand of fellowship given to me by the All Progressives Congress.
On that day, I said “it is the struggle for democracy and constitutionalism and service to my country and my people that are driving my choice and my decision” to accept the invitation to join the All Progressives Congress.
Like you, I said that because I believed that we had finally seen the beginnings of the rebirth of the new Nigeria of our dreams which would work for all of us, old and young.
However, events of the intervening years have shown that like any other human and like many other Nigerians, I was fallible.
While other parties have purged themselves of the arbitrariness and unconstitutionality that led to fractionalization, the All Progressives Congress has adopted those same practices and even gone beyond them to institute a regime of a draconian clampdown on all forms of democracy within the party and the government it produced.
Only last year, a governor produced by the party wrote a secret memorandum to the president which ended up being leaked. In that memo, he admitted that the All Progressives Congress had ‘not only failed to manage expectations of a populace that expected overnight ‘change’ but has failed to deliver even mundane matters of governance’.
Of the party itself, that same governor said ‘Mr. President, Sir Your relationship with the national leadership of the party, both the formal (NWC) and informal (Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Atiku Abubakar, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso), and former Governors of ANPP, PDP (that joined us) and ACN, is perceived by most observers to be at best frosty. Many of them are aggrieved due to what they consider total absence of consultations with them on your part and those you have assigned such duties.’
Since that memorandum was written up until today, nothing has been done to reverse the treatment meted out to those of us invited to join the All Progressives Congress on the strength of a promise that has proven to be false. If anything, those behaviours have actually worsened.
But more importantly, the party we put in place has failed and continues to fail our people, especially our young people. How can we have a federal cabinet without even one single youth.
A party that does not take the youth into account is a dying party. The future belongs to young people.
I admit that I and others who accepted the invitation to join the APC were eager to make positive changes for our country that we fell for a mirage. Can you blame us for wanting to put a speedy end to the sufferings of the masses of our people?
Be that as it may be, after due consultation with my God, my family, my supporters and the Nigerian people whom I meet in all walks of life, I, Atiku Abubakar, Waziri Adamawa, hereby tender my resignation from the All Progressives Congress while I take time to ponder my future.
May God bless you and may God bless Nigeria.
According to Naij.com Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has announced his defection from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to the Peoples Demo...
Nollywood actress cum filmmaker, Funke Akindele-Bello (Jenifa) has refuted giving birth to twins in a London hospital. She added it’s a figment of people’s imagination.
Speaking with encomium.ng on Thursday, November 23, 2017, via her publicist, Mr Biodun Kupoluyi, the Ikorodu, Lagos born thespian said,
“Don’t mind those people. They’re only imagining. You can not hide a pregnancy for long. And when you deliver, people must surely know. So, delivering a set of twins in London is not something one can hide at all.”
The pregnant actress left the shores of Nigeria for the United Kingdom a few days ago which fueled speculations that the fantastic role interpreter has gone to deliver her expected set of twins in London. Some reports flooded social media on Wednesday, November 22, 2017, that the Nollywood star has welcomed her set of twins.
This has since been generating reactions from her fans home and abroad.
Nollywood actress cum filmmaker, Funke Akindele-Bello (Jenifa) has refuted giving birth to twins in a London hospital. She added it’s a figm...
According to Daily Trust, Two former bosses of Nigeria’s intelligence agencies who resisted their arrest lately will be picked up in the coming days, the head of the anti-graft agency, Ibrahim Magu vowed yesterday.
Former Director-General of the Department of State Services, Ita Ekpeyong and a former Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency, Ayo Oke had refused to report for questioning over corruption allegations, the anti-graft agency said.
Ekpeyong who headed the DSS from 2010 to 2015, was alleged by the EFCC to be involved in the billions of naira arms scam in the office of former National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd).
The EFCC said other service chiefs from that period had since been charged to court for the same offence but that Mr. Ekpeyong has refused to turn himself in for questioning.
Similarly, Mr. Oke who was recently sacked by President Muhammadu Buhari for allegedly stashing away N13bn in a house in Ikoyi, had for over three weeks failed to respond to EFCC summons, the anti-graft agency said.
Efforts to arrest them at their highbrow residences in Asokoro by EFCC agents were blocked by DSS guards. After a standoff that lasted for over ten hours yesterday the EFCC agents withdrew from Mr. Ekpeyong’s house.
However, the acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ibrahim Magu, told reporters yesterday that the former top intelligence officers will be arrested as planned.
He spoke at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa in Abuja on Wednesday after attending the inauguration of the audit committee on the recovery and management of stolen assets by President Buhari.
Magu said the anti-corruption agency had concrete evidence against Ekpeyong and Oke, and that there is no going back on the plan to apprehend them.
“There must be reasons, strong reasons before we go for an arrest.”
Asked if he was discouraged by the failure to arrest them, he said “Never, Never; I am not discouraged at all; rather, it energises me to do more and I am telling you, nobody is above the law.
“We are not discouraged at all. The law must take its course, nobody is above the law.
Senate orders investigation
The Senate yesterday resolved to set up an ad-hoc committee to probe the incidents.
This was sequel to a point of order raised by Senator Dino Melaye (APC,Kogi).
Melaye described the clash as a national embarrassment and a recipe for disaster and called on the President to intervene.
“We have been embarrassed before the international community. That two sister agencies will engage in a fisticuff; arrest and stoppage of arrests. Mr. President, this is a recipe for national disaster,” he said.
Contributing, the Deputy Minority Whip, Biodun Olujimi(Ekiti PDP) called on President Buhari to be up and doing.
“Right now, we have a situation whereby nobody is in charge of anything and we cannot honestly blame anyone for what is happening. The truth is that you cannot go to the house of a security agent, a man who had kept the secrets of Nigeria for so long and just try to arrest him like chicken.
“Mr. President, there has to be someone that we can hold responsible when two brothers are fighting. The person that is supposed to be held responsible has not done anything, is not doing his work.
“This is the first time we’ll see gross irresponsibility in government whereby there is no arbiter; no one to come in between two agencies that belong to only one person. The two agencies report to one person, the Presidency and now we find them fighting on the pages of the newspapers, it’s a shame,” he said.
But the Senate Leader, Ahmad Lawan cautioned his colleagues against apportioning blames and called for a thorough investigation of the matter.
“It is one rare motion brought by Sen. Dino Melaye. I support that position. But let me say this, President Muhamadu Buhari is in full control of the government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
”Even when Mr. President was away to attend to his health, the acting president, Yemi Osinbajo was in full control. The statement by our colleague is unacceptable.
“This senate is highest lawmaking body in Nigeria. I would urge us to calm down especially the opposition, as it appears rather here nor there. Let there be an investigation before we apportion any blame,” he said.
In his remark, the Senate President, Bukola Saraki aligned himself to the position of the Senate leader on the matter.
“Leader has said it all. Anything we are adding now is just assumption. Let us take the prayer. The ad-hoc committee will report back in two weeks,” he said.
Members of the committee would be named today.
According to Daily Trust, Two former bosses of Nigeria’s intelligence agencies who resisted their arrest lately will be picked up in th...
Get an email of every new post! We'll never share your address.