Obasanjo finally dumps PDP after 16yrs tearing membership card

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Monday finally dumped the ruling Peoples Democratic Party by asking that his membership card be torn.

But almost two hours after he did that, the Ogun State PDP executive council, headed by Chief Adebayo Dayo, announced his expulsion from the party over what it termed his “series of unabated anti-party activities.”

The former President was hosting the executive and members of the party from Ward 11, Abeokuta North at his Hilltop residence when he announced that he was dumping the PDP.

The ward Chairman, Alhaji Usman Oladunjoye, who led the delegation, had told Obasanjo that they were on the visit to verify reports on a plot to suspend him from the PDP.

After he had thanked them for their concern and narrated how the Goodluck Jonathan administration had almost run the country aground, he said, “They said they want to expel me from the PDP, although I have not been told that; I have my ears   to the ground.”

“We have been trying to run away from a mad man but he pleads we wait for him at the other side of the river. I have told you before that I became President on the platform of the PDP and once I leave the party, I will not join any other party.”

“I will only be a Nigerian, I am ready to work with anybody regardless of political affiliation. Why would some people say they want to send me away. They don’t need to bother themselves, here’s your membership card, take it (at this point, he gave the card to Oladunjoye to tear).”

“I am no more a politician but a statesman, both internally and externally.”

Obasanjo,who joined the PDP in 1998, also debunked the allegation that he wanted to head an Interim National Government.

He said, “How can anybody in his right senses talk of ING in a democratic setting? Some of them are working for it. God will not allow it.’’ But almost two hours after he quit the PDP, the Dayo-led executive of the party, said the former President’s ward had in a letter dated February 12, accused him of   anti-party activities and uncomplimentary utterances against President Goodluck Jonathan.”

Dayo said, “Following the series of unabated anti-party activities unbecoming of a highly celebrated party man engaged in by Chief Obasanjo, totality of the executive, leaders and members of the PDP family in Ogun State hereby state categorically as from today, Monday, February 16, 2015, that Olusegun Obasanjo stands expelled and ex-communicated from the party, thereby losing all rights, previous privileges and respect of our teeming members.”

...Punch