I'VE NO HAND IN HIS DOWNFALL - ATIKU

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has refuted insinuations that he had a hand in the chains of events that led to the forced resignation of the former PDP national chairman, Dr. Ekwesilieze Nwodo. A statement by his Campaign Organisation said the former vice president could not have been responsible for Nwodo's downfall when he (Atiku) himself was a direct victim of the former chairman's insincerity, double standard, opportunism, selfishness and mischief.

'The erstwhile chairman delivered the convention to the President but they still went on baying for his blood. That tells you there was more to it than the eye could see. Someone wants blood and you give him palm oil. Does that satisfy him?' the statement contended.

Atiku recalled that a few weeks to the convention, the former PDP Chairman did everything to frustrate his presidential ambition by making impossible a meeting intended to discuss the modalities of how the January 15, 2011 convention would hold. He alleged that Nwodo did not agree to meet or even answer phone calls for an upwards of two months now.

According to Atiku, Nwodo frustrated every meeting his campaign organization had requested to discuss serious issues that bordered on free and fair election, especially the need to create a level-playing ground in which no delegate would feel constrained or intimidated to choose their preferred candidate.

The statement noted that the former national chairman had visited different chapters of the party, including Enugu State, where he and Governor Sullivan Chime were engaged in a battle for supremacy. 'It is clear that the former chairman had enough home troubles to contend with,' Atiku furthered maintained.

As for the issue of Atiku's return to the party and subsequent waiver granted him to run for the party's ticket, the Campaign Organization said the then chairman and the National Working Committee (NWC) of the PDP were confronted with a fait accompli since the former vice president was among those re-integrated by the Dr. Alex Ekwueme Committee set up to reconcile aggrieved members of the party.

In this regard, the former vice president distanced himself from any suggestions that his presidential bid was responsible for the unceremonious exit of Nwodo.