Why I play passive role in PDP, by Obasanjo

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has disclosed the reason for the passive role he currently plays in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), saying he could not share same political party with a political figure he referred to as “an indicted drug baron wanted in America.”

Obasanjo in a statement Sunday evening in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, was apparently reacting to last week Wednesday’s appeal made in Abuja by PDP leadership, including Adamu Mu’azu, the party’s national chairman; David Mark, Senate president and Gbenga Daniel, former Ogun State governor, saying it was baseless and needless as “he remains in the PDP”.

The appointment of the PDP chieftain infuriated Obasanjo as the chairman, West Africa and Global Commission on Drug.

“During last week when I was in South Africa as the chairman of AU Commission of Inquiry on South Sudan and while with my fellow commissioners, we were deliberating how to help that new country out of its problem of security and violence. I received avalanche of news and cacophony of appeals and pleadings from some quarters of PDP leadership,” Obasanjo said.

“There are misunderstandings and misrepresentations which some of those appeals and pleas manifested; hence, this explanation from me. Talking of inviting me back to PDP is wrong and it is a great misrepresentation as I have never left PDP and I will never leave PDP. I have said it before and I will say it again, I rose to become the president of Nigeria on the platform of PDP and for that reason alone, I will remain a card-carrying and ward-active member of PDP for as long as I have to be a political party member,” he added.