By Jide Ajani & Dapo Akinrefon

ABUJA—FORMER Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, said yesterday that his membership of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, remained legal and valid consequent upon the same waiver given to Dr Okwesilieze Nwodo, who recently returned to the PDP to take up the party’s chairmanship position.

He threatened to head for court if the party did not accede to his request. This was just as the South-East geopolitical zone adopted President Goodluck Jonathan as presidential candidate of the old Eastern region for the 2001 election.

Atiku who spoke during an interactive meeting with media executives in Abuja, said he decided to file for a waiver which has been accepted by the party’s leadership.

The presidential aspirant embarked on a judicial tie-back reminiscent of his struggle to oust the powers of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to disqualify candidates for election preparatory to the 2007 general elections which resulted in a landmark judgment in his favour. He, however, insisted that this time, too, he would seek legal redress if the party refused to give him a waiver.

‘We crafted the Constitution’

Atiku said: “I don’t need a waiver and I don’t see how PDP will get out of this. But if they try to get out of this, the courts are there to interprete. It is true, somewhere in the party’s constitution, that if you are a joiner or returnee, there is a provision which states that you cannot run for public office until you have stayed for one or two years.

“I want to state here that all those provisions where not there before. They were inserted by Obasanjo to stop Atiku. I am a founding father of PDP and we crafted the constitution and by the time we did it, Obasanjo was not even in PDP.

Secondly, after late President Yar’Adua came into office, the party felt there was a need to reconcile those who were either forced or frustrated out of the party to return to the PDP.

“The Alex Ekwueme report recommended unconditional return of members who left the party and a White Paper was issued by the party saying that all those who were forced out of the party, should be granted unconditional return to the party. These recommendations were accepted and it directed all state branches to issue registration cards to all returned members of the party.

“The question is: Is the provision contained in this White Paper superior to provisions in the party’s constitution? Now, it is a matter of legal resolution. What the lawyers are saying is that based on the White Paper and the acceptance and approval of this paper, I don’t need a waiver; but all the same, I decided to ask for a waiver and my application for a waiver has been filed this morning.

“I want to tell you that I will get a waiver because I moved out together with Nwodo because we were pushed out at the same time. And then Nwodo was my returning officer at the Action Congress convention in Lagos; so, I want to see how they, PDP, will deny me waiver.”

Sections of the PDP Constitution which deals with returnee members are: Article 8 (9) and 16 (4), and Article 8 (9) states:

“Persons who desire to rejoin the party after leaving it shall, unless exempted by the National Working Committee, NWC, be placed on probation for a period of time not less than a year.”