2019: PDP rules out automatic ticket for Atiku as rumours of his return heighten

As speculation over Atiku Abubakar’s return to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) heightens, the party Board of Trustees (BoT) chairman, Senator Walid Jibrin, has said that the former vice president would not get automatic ticket should he eventually defect to his former party.

The speculation that Atiku, a leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) is planning to return to the PDP, his former party, has continued to dominate discourse in some quarters.

His state Adamawa chapter of the opposition party has not hidden its call on its former leader to return to PDP ahead of the 2019 presidential election.

Already, a chieftain of the PDP in Adamawa has accused Atiku of hijacking the party in the state, an accusation the former VP had refuted, insisting that he still belongs to the APC.

But PDP’s BoT chairman while interacting with newsmen in Kaduna noted that Atiku had no other option left him now than return to his former party as the treatment being meted out to him by APC is no longer tolerable.

He however noted that should Atiku return to the party as being speculated that he was going to vie for the party’s presidential ticket for the 2019 general elections like other party aspirants.

“Has he told you he is returning to the PDP? We are ready to accept him to our party but he should be ready to work for a waiver.

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“The North met in Abuja to say that any candidate from the North can contest. Let us get them. I think they are getting set now. For now, we have a former governor of Kano State, Ibrahim Shekarau, former Jigawa State governor, Sule Lamido; a former governor of Sokoto State, Attahiru Bafarawa, and so on preparing to vie for the PDP presidential ticket.

“If the PDP grants Atiku a waiver, he should then join the cream of presidential aspirants in the party to fight for the ticket in 2019..

“If the PDP considers Atiku for the automatic presidential ticket, what about those in the party who are showing interest? Should we throw them away? If he is coming, he should come as an equal partner. We are ready to accept him. But, he must follow the rules of the game. First, he must undergo primaries like any other person, and he must fight for the presidential ticket,” Jibrin said.

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