Atiku replies Jonathan, says he’s ‘protecting the PDP’

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar on
Monday replied the presidency on his
involvement in the formation of a splinter
Peoples Democratic Party.
President Goodluck Jonathan’s Special
Adviser on Political Matters, Ahmed
Gulak, had said on Monday that Mr.
Abubakar should be grateful for being
allowed to return to the party.
“I was surprised because Atiku is
supposed to know more than another
person that there is no party like PDP. He
left PDP and went to ACN and he came
back to PDP, because he discovered that
outside PDP there is no party, so he had
to come back and he was even given the
waiver to contest the primaries election in
2011,” Mr. Gulak said.
“Atiku should be grateful to PDP. Atiku is
indebted to PDP and the best way to
continue to pay the debt is to protect
PDP,” he added.
In his response, sent by his media aide,
Garba Shehu, Mr. Abubakar said he does
not dispute the fact that he is indebted to
the PDP; but that the best way to continue
to pay that debt is to protect PDP.
“That is exactly what I am doing:
Protecting the PDP,” the former vice
president said.
Mr. Abubakar led seven serving PDP
governors and other party leaders to
stage a walkout of the party’s national
convention on Saturday.
The group later announced the formation
of a separate faction of the party to be led
by a former PDP Acting Chairman,
Abubakar Baraje.
A former PDP National Secretary and
former Osun State Governor, Olagunsoye
Oyinlola, is the National Secretary of the
new faction.
The faction on Monday filed a case before
a Lagos High Court asking the court to
order the exit of the PDP National
Chairman, Bamanga Tukur, and other
members of the party’s National Working
Committee.