Atiku: Why I joined APC – Buhari, Tinubu, others to receive ex-VP today

Atiku yesterday announced his resignation from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP),  a party he returned to in 2009 after leaving in 2006, to pursue his presidential ambition on the platform of the then Action Congress (AC).The former vice president has in the past two weeks been consulting with his supporters in the six geo-political zones […]

Atiku yesterday announced his resignation from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP),  a party he returned to in 2009 after leaving in 2006, to pursue his presidential ambition on the platform of the then Action Congress (AC).
The former vice president has in the past two weeks been consulting with his supporters in the six geo-political zones of the country most of who advised him to leave the PDP for the APC in view of the fact that the PDP was not giving him his due as a former vice president.
Atiku in a statement he personally signed yesterday said he is leaving the PDP because the party is enmeshed in crises and has shown it is incapable of resolving them.
The former vice president said the visit by the leaders of the APC and their invitation to him to join the party, coupled with his interest in Nigeria made him to join the APC. He encouraged his political associates and friends to register and join the APC once the registration exercise commences, “so that together we can change this country for the better.”
He accused the PDP of abandoning Nigerians while promoting sectional interests by protecting those he called ‘political extremists’ who he said have been threatening the continuous existence of the nation.
Atiku who said he was victimised in the PDP for daring to contest the PDP presidential primaries in 2011 against President Goodluck Jonathan, said as a former vice president, he is by virtue of the PDP Constitution a member of the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) as well as its Board of Trustees (BOT) but that he is not invited to the meetings of the two organs nor consulted over their decisions.
He said the issues that led to a walk out from the PDP convention in 2013 by some governors and himself “are yet to be addressed”, while accusing the party of posing danger to “the continued existence of this country by this culture of impunity and arbitrariness.”
Chief Press secretary to Governor Murtala Nyako of Adamawa State, Ahmed Sajo when contacted, confirmed there would be an APC rally in Yola today, saying the event which would be attended by APC leaders across the country had been scheduled long before Atiku announced his defection.
Musa Kamale of the defunct Congress for Progressives Change (CPC) also confirmed that leaders of the APC in the state including Buba Marwa and Markus Gundiri would be in attendance.