Nigeria Content Online

The Adamawa State
chapter of the People’s Democratic Party at the weekend reconciled with
Atiku Abubakar when it welcomed the former vice president to its
secretariat in Yola.

The state chapter
of the PDP had been in a long battle with the former vice president and
resisted his return to the party he left to join the Action Congress.

Mr. Abubakar marked
his return to the party with a donation of N5 million, saying he has
put past bitterness behind him and was looking to embrace the future
that lays ahead, especially as he is one of the party’s presidential
candidates.

He also said he would work for the victory of the party in the next general elections.

The former number
two citizen, who was received by top echelon of the PDP in the state
led by its state secretary, P. P. Elisha, told the gathering that he
was fully back into the party and admonished its leaders to imbibe the
tenets of internal democracy.

He enjoined the
party leadership in the state to forget their differences, while on his
own part he said he has forgiven those who tried to prevent him from
rejoining the party in the state.

“Bygone is bygone.
Let us join hands to deliver the state and the country in the next
elections. Together we can join hands to make a turn around. Let us
forgive and forget our differences in opinion, but we should stand for
the party,” he said.

Politics without bitterness

He also asked his
supporters who have left the party to return and denied insinuations
that he had a hand in the court actions being instituted by some
members against the leadership of the party in the state, wherein they
are seeking the dissolution of the state executive on the grounds that
it is illegitimately constituted.

Mr Abubakar said he
could not be associated with such double dealings and advised the party
leadership to disregard the “baseless accusations”.

“All members
intending to return to the party should be allowed back into the party
without inhibition,” Mr. Abubakar said. “PDP is a very large family
that can accommodate everyone.”

Mr. Elisha
acknowledged Mr Abubakar as an accomplished politician who was among
the founding fathers of the party and as a party man had worked to
establish the party in the state.

He said the
presidential candidate, as an astute party man, should be emulated by
all as he exemplified the truism of “politics without bitterness”.

The chairman of the party, Mijinyawa Kugama was, however, absent at
the occasion. A statement from the party said he was away attending to
his sick son in a Maiduguri hospital.