Why Ribadu dumped the APC for PDP

Fo rmer chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Malam Nuhu Ribadu, decided to join the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) because he felt like an “orphan” in the All Progressives Congress (APC), confidants of the retired police officer have said.

 
 
 
. The former anti-graft czar complained to friends privately that the impeachment of Vice Admiral Murtala Nyako as governor had effectively destroyed Adamawa APC as all key politicians had defected to PDP, leaving Ribadu and former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar as the only big names in the opposition party.

 
 “Earlier, Ribadu had been advised by Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and Chief Bisi Akande to go for governorship in Adamawa ─ a clear message that he should not give the presidential ticket a shot again,” a Ribadu associate told The Cable

 
. This, the source said, was a clear pointer to the fact that Ribadu was no longer “highly regarded by the APC hierarchy at the national level”. 

 
At the state level, Ribadu had never been comfortable being in the same party with Atiku, whom he indicted on corruption charges in 2006 when he was EFCC chairman and Atiku was vice-president to President Olusegun Obasanjo.

 
The courts later cleared Atiku of any wrongdoing. “If Ribadu decided to stay back in APC, it would be difficult for him to work with Atiku whose political calculations no one can ever be certain about,” the source added, revealing that Ribadu worked “day and night” to help Nyako escape impeachment while Atiku “did not lift a finger until it was too late”.

 
 Ribadu surprised many political analysts in 2010 when he joined the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN, now part of APC) to contest for the 2011 presidential election against President Goodluck Jonathan of the PDP. 

 
However, he only won in Osun State out of the states under the control of ACN in what many alleged was a betrayal by the ACN leaders who were said to have struck a secret deal with Jonathan before the poll. “Nuhu took it on his chin then, hoping that 2011 was a good introduction to politics for him

 
. But recent events in APC have demonstrated to him that he is no longer wanted in the party,” the associate said. There are also bigger calculations about 2019.

 
Courtesy The Cable‎.ng
 
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