Dogara: Atiku, Saraki top list of PDP returnees APC expects

In the main opposition PDP, nothing is impossible.

So prepare for this: That Nigeria’s most unstable politician and ex-vice president Atiku Abubakar returns to the party he dumped less than two years ago.

No news!

In 2014, under President Goodluck Jonathan, a band of renegades in the PDP, led by Buba Galadima, struck out of the PDP, then ruling party. By 2018, Galadima led back all—then incumbent Speaker, Senate president, lawmakers other bigwigs numbering 17 in the nPDP, a bloc foxy pols pestering the APC.

Two years after, something just gave. The hotfooted   politicians are taking another moonlight flit. Former Speaker Yakubu Dogara tripped out first on July 24. Others are on Dogara’s hill, according to Mai Mala Buni, Yobe governor and chairman of the APC caretaker committee.

Among those others are the party’s big enchiladas: Atiku, ex-Sen President Bukola Saraki, former Kano Gov. Musa Kwakwanso, Sokoto Gov Aminu Tambiwal, former Gov. Murtala Nyako, PDP’s ex-national chairman Kawu Baraje. Then come small fries like former Sen. Dino Melaye, and other reps.

Two things can—or will—bring these carpetbaggers: lust for power and APC carrot dangling.

Sources told the National Daily what pissed Dogara off in the PDP.

“After helping Gov. Mohammed Bala and the party to win election, they all turned against him.”

The friction didn’t just happen. Dogara has ambition—like his predecessor Tambuwal, who is now a governor. Bala, however, won’t sit that watching Dogara scuttle his re-election plan.

The foremost among the nPDP, now prowling about in the PDP, have lofty goals, too. Atiku wants to be president; Saraki won’t want to be buried politically; Galadima and Baraje want to become holdovers in the PDP politics.

And in the current APC struggling not to crumble, no help is too small.

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“Well, we are meeting all our aggrieved members particularly (those) who have interest in coming back to the party,” Buni said.

“They should feel free to do so. We are assuring them and there is no crime in double assurance.”

With this carte blanche , the APC should  warm up for surprises.