The Adamawa State chapter of the People’s Democratic Party has insisted that the former presidential candidate of the party and former vice president, Atiku Abubakar’s exit from the PDP will not affect its fortunes during the 2027 general elections.
While speaking in an exclusive interview on Monday, the state organising secretary Hamza Madagali confirmed that out of the over 286 state executives cut across local governments and wards, only three members joined Atiku’s African Democratic Congress.
“The Jada Local Government PDP chairman, the women leader, and one other ward executive member were the only three that joined the former vice president in his new party,” he disclosed.
Madagali insisted that the PDP in Adamawa State is an institution that can not be dismantled overnight, pointing out that the party represented the hope of Adamawa people.
“Adamawa PDP shares have been over subscribed by the people, so collapsing such a great institution built by people is not an individual task,” he stated.
Also speaking, a top party chieftain from Michika Local Government, Mr. Luka Tizhe Tumba said that the former vice president’s exit from PDP was a prayer answered by God.
“He had been an obstacle to the party any time, especially during elections because the people of Adamawa State have not seen his political benefit from the days he was vice president and even now,” he declared.
Tumba, a top leader of the party in Michika, the biggest local government in Adamawa with 16 wards, said that only the exit of Governor Ahmadu Fintiri can ground PDP in Adamawa State.
“Other political big names in Adamawa State are like commanders without troops. How can such commanders go into battlefield?” he queried.
The state chairman of the party, Barrister Tahir Shehu, in his own comment, pointed out that the former vice president’s exit will have no negative political effect on the party.
[b]“Adamawa State is the home state of PDP. Atiku himself won the governorship election in 1999 on the platform of the party. It was based on this that he was elevated to the position of vice president.”
He added, “The only time PDP lost the state was under President Goodluck Jonathan in 2015, when a candidate was selected in Abuja, and we rejected it at the poll to prove that Adamawa voters are not based in Abuja.”
Shehu pointed out that after the crisis, the party reclaimed its mandate in 2019, and the PDP under Governor Ahmadu Fintiri can not be challenged at the poll come 2027.
He insisted that “Atiku’s exit can not shake the party in the state due to the massive support the PDP gets from the people of the state.”
