Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, has stated that the People’s Democratic Party is “gasping for breath”, adding that he can never return to the party.
Obasanjo said this while reacting to a photo news which went viral on social media, where he was alleged to have attended a PDP event held in Abuja.
Obasanjo said he had left the party when it was alive and bubbling, and, therefore, he could not have rejoined now when the party was divided, factionalised and gasping for breath.
He noted that those behind the media report linking him with the PDP convention committee’s meeting were probably looking for ways to annoy and embarrass him, but assured that anybody hoping to drag him back to PDP for whatever reason would fail just “like any man serving a dead mice to a cat.”
“If I quit a party when it was alive and seemingly united, how could I go back to a now divided, factionalized party gasping for breath?
“Those who know me, know that I have publicly announced my quitting partisan politics and those who will believe the purported story will believe anybody who tells him that his or her mother is not a woman,” he said.
This was contained in a statement signed by his media aide, Kehinde Akinyemi, and made available to newsmen.
“To clear the minds of doubting Thomases and those behind the orchestrated news in circulation and particularly those who had been calling to ascertain what actually happened at the Shehu Musa Yar’adua Centre, on the invitation of the Commodities Association Stakeholders, His Excellency was invited to the “Zero Hunger Nigeria” event at the Centre’, the statement said.
“He arrived at about 10.00am and immediately moved to the meeting. The meeting commenced but few minutes into the session, his attention was drawn to the presence of some people walking up to where he was seated.
“At closer glance, he recognised them to be politicians and they exchanged pleasantries, saying they came to greet him and they walked out again from the meeting. The former president cracked jokes with them calling them “invaders and gate crashers”.
“The photo news in circulation, which claimed that he was spotted at a political party event is therefore mischievous, and a responsible journalist ought to have gone further to ascertain his actual destination. Shocking also to note that the picture was actually taken while on his way out of the centre after the programme he had attended had finished.”