PDP plans to get Obasanjo, Atiku, Saraki, others back to party

The leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Tuesday initiated moves to woo former President Olusegun Obasanjo, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar; Senate President, Bukola Saraki; and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, back to its fold.


Other targeted by the party include Senators Rabiu Kwankwaso, Aliyu Wamakko, Abdullahi Adamu, Danjuma Goje, Governor Aminu Tambuwal and many others who were members of the PDP but defected to the All Progressives Congress ((APC).

The PDP had appointed Governors Nyesom Wike (Rivers) and Ibrahim Dankwabo (Gombe) as chairman and deputy chairman of a reconciliation committee set up to woo the high profile politicians back to its fold.

While inaugurating the committee in Abuja on Tuesday, the National Chairman of the PDP, Senator Ahmed Makarfi, tasked Wike and Dankwabo on the need to win the targeted individuals back to the party.

The party also appointed a former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Chief Tom Ikimi, as chairman of a newly inaugurated Disciplinary Committee.

A former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Austin Opara, was named deputy.

Delta State Governor, Ifeanyi Okowa, was named chairman of National Convention Committee, while former Governor of Jigawa State, Sule Lamido, will act as deputy chairman.

Makarfi charged the reconciliation committee to extend its assignment to the founding members of the PDP, stressing that the dragnet should be extended beyond those that left the party in 2015.

According to him, all individuals who had held top government and political positions on the platform of the PDP but have left the party should be brought back.

Makarfi said: “This includes President, Vice President, governors and former Senate president, Speaker of House of Representatives and all other former top ranking members in the party.

“Everybody that was in PDP at one time or the other should be reconciled with. It is not limited to pre-2015.”

Makarfi also mandated the committee to reach out to other individuals who have never been in the PDP with a view to bringing them into the party without any conditions attached.