Atiku Has Taken Over Adamawa PDP?

A former Special Assistant to Vice-President Atiku Abubakar and a chieftain of the PDP, Dr. Umar Ardo, has called for the cancellation of the results of last Saturday ward congresses in Adamawa State. He accused Atiku of hijacking the party in the state.

Recall that Atiku, a former member of PDP, defected to the APC before the 2015 general elections.

Ardo spoke with journalists yesterday after submitting a petition to the Adamawa State PDP Congress Appeal Panel at the party’s national headquarters in Abuja.

He said, “No election took place in Toungo, Ganye Mayo Belwa, Demsa, Numan, Shelleng, Yola North, Yola South, Mubi South, Michika and Madagali local government areas. “The Caretaker Committee members representing these LGAs simply sat in their rooms and drew up their list and submitted their names as elected executive members and they were admitted.

“It’s an open secret that the members of the committee connived and simply sat down and distributed the party offices among themselves.”

On roles played by Atiku, Ardo said he “was involved directly. He called me to say that I should make sure certain persons get these positions. I disagreed. He has hijacked the PDP in the state.”

He observed that Atiku’s return to the PDP had its disadvantages, saying,

“There are also three disadvantages. We learnt that Atiku is coming back to the party with an ambition; an ambition to contest for the Presidency.

“Now that will be a source of conflict because there are others in the party who are also interested and they are nursing this ambition. There will be conflict among party members.

“Secondly, the deep pocket that Atiku has will not only serve that ambition; it will also deepen the conflict. The third disadvantage is that those foot soldiers will also serve the ambition and in the process deepen the conflict.”

But in his reaction, Atiku insisted that he had no hands in the problems of the PDP in his state.