Atiku, Kwankwaso debunk return move to PDP

Former Vice President and chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Atiku Abubakar has dismissed claims made by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, that he would return back to the party before the February elections.

It would be recalled that the PDP had on Friday through its National Secretary, Prof. Wale Oladipo, at a press conference in Ile-Ife, Osun state, said it was wooing former members of the party, including Atiku and Governor Rabiu Kwakwanso, who defected to the APC to return to the party before the elections.

“The PDP has begun moves to bring back some of our former chieftains who are now in the APC. The PDP reconciliation committee set up by the National Working Committee will meet with all former members for the purpose of bringing them back before the next general elections,” Oladipo said.

But in response to the PDP’s statement, Atiku through the Director General of the Atiku Media Office, Mallam Garba Shehu, has said he has no plans to return to the PDP, adding that the news making the rounds of his alleged plans to return to the party were being peddle by “mischief makers.” “There is no iota of truth in such claims. It is not only false, it is malicious and a product of the futile imaginations of those peddling it,” Shehu said.

Also, Gov. Kwankwaso has described the PDP’s claim of his planned return to the party as baseless. Kwankwaso made this known through his Director of Press and Public Relations, Baba Dantiye. “He (Kwankwaso) is presently APC’s candidate for Kano Central Senatorial District. I think it’s just PDP’s desperation,” Dantiye said.