Their game plan, it was learnt, was to grant the former Vice-President a waiver in order to neutralise his political powers.
Atiku was defeated at the party’s presidential primaries on Friday by Jonathan with a wide margin. Of the votes cast, the president got 2,736, while Atiku scored 805. Dr. Sarah Jibril who also participated in the primaries got only one vote.
The source said that their calculation was that they were aware of the presidential ambition of Abubakar and that the best way to deal with him was to grant him a waiver to enable him to come to the party and conduct the presidential election with Jonathan.
The source said the Jonathan group knew that there was no way the former Vice-President would not want to run for the presidency but that they were confident that Jonathan would defeat him.
The source said, “So, the calculation was that when he is defeated by the President, it would be difficult for
him to move to another political party to contest again.
“If we had refused him a waiver, he might have people’s sympathy and he could use that to sway people to his side. So, we said ‘let us give him a waiver. Then defeat him and see what he will do.’ That was exactly what happened.”
The source said that those who had sympathy for the President calculated that if Atiku was left without a party for a long time, he could either return to the Action Congress of Nigeria where he contested the presidency in 2007, or move to another political party such as All Nigerian Peoples Party or Labour Party.
It will be recalled that the National Executive Committee of the party had on September 15, 2010 granted him and some other returnee members of the party waivers to enable them to contest any political office.
It was the waiver that allowed Atiku to contest the party’s presidential primaries on Thursday.
Apart from Atiku, others that were granted waivers were the deputy governor of Imo State, Mrs. Ada Okwuonu, Mr. Charles Elechi and Prince N. Okoro who are both members of Abia State House of Assembly.
Also on the list were Senator Alphonsus Igbeke, Chief Olusola Akanmode, Sen. Mohammed Ohiare, Sen. Salihu Otaru Ohize and seven others.
In line with the same plan to weaken the opposition, the source said, INEC under Prof. Maurice Iwu registered many political parties. The idea was that these parties would dissipate their energies, leaving the coast clear for the PDP.
Meanwhile, more facts have emerged on how Jonathan won in Kwara State despite the fact that the
governor of the state, Dr. Bukola Saraki, was a strong proponent of the zoning arrangement in the PDP.
A source close to the governor said that the crisis currently rocking the PDP in the state which had led to the exit of Saraki’s father, Dr. Olusola Saraki, from the party, was a pointer to the fact that the governor would need the support of the president to survive.
While the senior Saraki wants the governor to hand-over to his daughter, Senator Gbemisola, the governor believes that it is morally wrong to do that.
The governor’s position infuriated his father who later defected from the PDP with his daughter to Allied Congress Party of Nigeria, which he formed.
“You can see that the governor also needs the support of the president to win the battle in his home state and that was why he asked the delegates he could control to vote for the President,” the source added.
The voting in the state showed that while Jonathan had 61 votes, Atiku garnered 26 votes.
Other pro-zoning apostles like former military dictator, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida (retd) and a former National Security Adviser, Gen. Aliyu Gusau (retd) were able to deliver their states (Niger and Zamfara respectively) to Abubakar.
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