Ex-VP meets Makarfi at PDP secretariat

Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, met with caretaker national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ahmed Makarfi, at the partys national secretariat on Tuesday, December 5, 2017.

The former Vice President, who recently defected from the ruling All Progressives' Congress (APC), was welcomed to the secretariat by Makarfi and the party's National Caretaker Committee.

While speaking at the meeting, he praised the party's leaders and said there is "no other political party" apart from the PDP.

He said, "I like to thank you very much indeed for this privilege and opportunity granted me to do so, realising that this is a very busy for you.

"All what I have come to do today is to come and show my face. Many people have read in the media that I have returned home. This is home.

"Mr Chairman, I want to congratulate you for a wonderful work which you have been doing to redeem the image of this party, to return it, rebrand it and return it to its original form.

"I want to assure you of my support and cooperation at all times, to make sure that these objectives are achieved by you and subsequently by your successors."

The former vice president also reached out to other PDP defectors in the APC to return to the former ruling party.

Atiku's defection

In what was a widely-expected move, Atiku resigned as a member of the APC on Friday, November 24, after months of growing discontent.

In his signed resignation letter, the 71-year-old accused President Muhammadu Buhari of neglecting him and condemned the APC for "instituting a regime of a draconian clampdown on all forms of democracy".

In a live Facebook message on December 3, as expected, the former Vice President officially declared his return to the PDP.

In an interview with Dele Momodu, the Publisher of The Boss magazine, Atiku noted that Buhari has wasted his massive goodwill, adding that he will defeat the president in 2019.

History of Atiku as presidential contestant

After serving as Vice President to former President Olusegun Obasanjo between 1999 to 2007 under the PDP, Atiku contested the 2007 presidential election as a candidate for Action Congress (AC), losing to the late former President Umaru Yar'Adua.

He returned to the PDP only to lose the party's primary election for the 2011 presidential election to the eventual winner, Goodluck Jonathan.

Due to an internal party crisis he defected to the APC in the run-up to the 2015 presidential election before losing the party's ticket to another eventual winner, President Buhari.