Count me out of PDP, it’s in coma, Obasanjo says

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has denied returning to the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

Obasanjo, who was reported to have attended the inauguration of the convention committee of the PDP on Friday, said he left the party when it was still alive.

According to the former president, it was unthinkable for anybody to contemplate that he would reverse himself and return to a comatose PDP after he publicly announced his exit last year.

Obasanjo stated this in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, on Saturday in a press release signed by his media aide, Mr. Kehinde Akinyemi, in reaction to media reports linking him with a meeting of the Convention Committee of the PDP at the Shehu Musa Yar’ Ardua Centre, Abuja, adding that whoever believed the report would certainly doubt the gender of his or her mother.

The former president said he attended a farmers’ event at the Shehu Musa Yar’adua Centre organised by the Commodities Association Stakeholders on “Zero Hunger Nigeria” and not for any PDP event.

Continuing, Obasanjo said whoever was behind the report had the intention of annoying and embarrassing him, but insisted that anybody hoping to drag him back to PDP for whatever reason would fail just “like any man serving a dead mice to a cat.”

“If I quit a party when it was alive and seemingly united, how could I go back to a now divided, factionalized party gasping for breath?”

“Those who know me, know that I have publicly announced my quitting partisan politics and those who will believe the purported story will believe anybody who tells him that his or her mother is not a woman.

“To clear the minds of doubting Thomases and those behind the orchestrated news in circulation and particularly those who had been calling to ascertain what actually happened at the Shehu Musa Yar’adua centre.

Read also: Obj is the most corrupt ex-African president, says Clark

“The meeting commenced but few minutes into the session, his attention was drawn to the presence of some people walking up to where he was seated. At closer glance, he recognized them to be politicians and they exchanged
pleasantries, saying they came to greet him and they walked out again from the meeting”.

“Obasanjo cracked jokes with members of his former party on which platform he was elected as civilian president in 1999 before he later became the Chairman, Board of Trustees (BOT) of same party, calling them ‘invaders and gate-crashers’.

“The programme ended and immediately he and his entourage headed back to Lagos. He was barely hours in Lagos when he started receiving calls from both far and near, wanting to find out about his presence at a political party
programme in Abuja.

“The photo as well as the media report in circulation, which claimed that he was spotted at a political party event is therefore mischievous, as a responsible journalist ought to have gone further to ascertain his actual destination in among the number of venues at the centre.

“They simply took the photograph of his alighting from his vehicle to read another meaning. It is shocking also to note that the picture was actually taken while on his way out of the Centre after the programme he attended had ended.

“This is height of irresponsible journalism, which the former President is calling for its investigation and sanction on anybody involved in order to serve as deterrent to others who may want to be used either by omission or commission to misinform the public on such sensitive issue”, the statement said.

By Timothy Enietan-Matthews

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