Rep hails Atiku’s return to PDP

…He can help PDP rout APC in 2019
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) House of Representatives member, Rep. Henry Daniel Ofongo has hailed the decision of former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar to return to the PDP following his resignation from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), declaring that no member of the opposition will be opposed to his decision to rejoin the party.

Rep. Ofongo from Bayelsa state speaking journalists in Abuja, said that Atiku being a founding member of the PDP has the right to return to the party, even though, he didn’t help see the party through its trying times after the PDP lost the 2015 presidential election.

He said that Atiku was instrumental to the formation of the PDP, adding that as such the ex-vice president is welcome back to the home he built and before leaving to join the APC.

The lawmaker liknened the former vice president to a father making a journey from his home after many years of hardwork, saying that his return must be welcomed by his family with joy and excitement.

“Atiku is like a father who built his house and went on a sojourn, so if he’s coming back, his children won’t say why he’s coming back because home is home. So, we welcome him”, he stated.

On whether the party has forgotten the role played by Atiku, leading to PDP’s defeat at the polls in 2015, Rep. Ofongo said Atiku once left the PDP to contest the presidential election on the platform of the Action Congress (AC) which he lost to the PDP in 2007, and that the 2015 scenario was a self-inflicted injury by the party.

“You would see that when he left, we still won. So Atiku leaving did not make PDP to lose the presidential election in 2015. The truth is, we had our own internal problems.

“You could see that five governors left the party at a time. So many National Assembly members also left after the governor’s due to internal problems that I can’t begin to dwell so much on.

“But like I said, we’ve seen our mistakes and we have looked at all of them as things that should not be repeated if we must move forward.

“I want to say that God has seen us through our trying times as a party because we’ve been enmeshed in internal crisis.

But, by the grace of God, we are out of it after the Supreme court ruling. And come December 9-10, we will be having our convention.

“And I believe Nigerians have seen PDP rule for 16years before we lost the elections, we’ve learnt from our mistakes, and Nigerians have equally seen how it is to experience two sides.

And by God’s special grace in 2019, PDP will come back to power at the centre,” he added.

Henry Omunu, Abuja