The All Progressives Congress (APC) has said that it is yet to receive a letter of resignation from the party from former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, being reported in the media.
The party’s National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, made this known while reacting to the development on Friday in Abuja.
Atiku had in a statement personally signed by him on Friday announced his resignation from the APC, citing lack of good relationship with the party leadership, among other issues.
He explained that he joined the APC in 2014 after some of its leaders appealed to him, following crisis in his former party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which resulted to its fictionalisation.
According to Atiku, the situation in my former party left me and several other loyal party members in limbo, not knowing which of the parallel executives the legitimate leadership was.
“It was under this cloud that members of the APC made the appeal to me to join their party.
“It was on the basis of this invitation and assurances made to me that I, being party-less at that time, accepted on Feb. 2, 2014, the hand of fellowship given to me by the APC,“ he said.
He further stated that he joined the APC to continue his struggle for democracy and constitutionalism and service to the country and the people.
“However, events of the intervening years have shown that like any other human and many other Nigerians, I was fallible.
“I admit that I and others who accepted the invitation to join the APC were eager to make positive changes for our country that we fell for a mirage.
“Be that as it may be, after due consultation with my God, my family, my supporters and the Nigerian people whom I meet in all walks of life, I hereby tender my resignation from the APC,’’ Atiku claimed.
He said that he would time to ponder about his future, noting that politics was about interest.
But, Abdullahi said that APC leadership had not seen any formal notification on the purported resignation, adding however, that based on what “we have seen in the social media, we can say that it is surprising’’.
“For us politics is all about interest; so, if the former Vice President feels that his interest is better served elsewhere, we don’t have any issues against that.
“We can always wish him good luck. For us, the task of building a political party is not a day’s job; it is a marathon.
“And, it takes many years and we will continue to improve on our system to get the kind of party we want to really build, “ Abdullahi said.
He stressed that it took many years to build a strong political party, adding that parties were made up of different persons, some happy and some sad.
Abdullahi added that everybody would have to take decisions at some point in time.
He, however, said that the APC was not bothered about the rumoured exit of the former vice president from the party until it saw the number of people that would move with him.
He maintained that those remaining in the party would continue to work for it, build it and make it stronger in the interest of all.