Atiku Abubakar :

Ayorinde Oluokun/Abuja

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has resigned from the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC.

Paul Ibe, spokesperson for the former Vice President said in a tweet on Friday morning.

The exit of the former President following months of complaints that his contributions to the APC success in the displacement of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in the 2015 general elections had not been compensated by the Muhammadu Buhari administration.

In addition, some of the appointees of the Buhari administration have been taking actions interpreted by some to be targetted at the business interests of the former President.

Also, the former President had also complained about lack of internal democracy in APC and it is especially telling that he is jumping the ship as the chorus for the endorsement of President Buhari as the consessus candidate of the ruling party is gaining momentum by day.

The rumour of Atiku eventual exist from APC was an open secret though. For one, members of the opposition party had indicated that the former Customs officer who defected from its platform to PDP in 2014 one of its targets ahead of the 2019 general elections.

Also, many had associated Atiku’s  embrace of the resturucturing campaign to the desire of the former VP to sell himself to some Nigerians, especially in the Southern part of the country.

Atiku contested the presidential ticket of the APC which he lost to Buhari in 2014 and the presidential ticket of PDP against former President Goodluck Jonathan in 2011. He was the presidential candidate of the defunct Action Congress in the 2007 presidential election, but lost to the late Umaru Yar’Adua.

Former President Jonathan recently advised the former Vice President to return to PDP early enough for the 2019 presidential election if he was interested in the party’s presidential ticket.

With his exit from the ruling party of Friday morning, it would seem Atiku has taken that advice.

Daily Trust had earlier reported that the former VP who had complained of being unfairly treated by the APC will formerly collect his PDP membership card in his home state of Adamawa tomorrow to formally indicate his final exit from the party.

According to the Abuja based newspaper, Atiku had perfected plans to participate in the PDP’s national convention scheduled for December 9.

The former VP, Daily Trust said would first collect his membership card in his Jada 1 polling ward in Adamawa even as several of his loyalists had already defected to pave the way for what they called “Atiku’s home coming.”

The newspaper quoted an unnamed member of Atiku’s political group in the state as disclosing  ‎ disclosed that   thousands of supporters had been mobilised from the 21 local areas in the state.

‎”Twenty buses have been allocated to each local government area for the event; the buses will convey supporters to Yola,” he said.

Daily Trust added that it learnt that the former APC presidential   aspirant is expected to arrive Yola tomorrow in preparation for his decamping to the PDP.

The newspaper quoated Alhaji Lawan Uba, the Director of Mobilization of Atiku Support Group as confirming that  Atiku would leave the APC on Saturday.

According to him, the forme VP had planted his loyalists in key positions during the recent ward, local government and state congresses of the PDP.

Details later