2027: Atiku delays ADC membership card collection amid rumoured Jonathan comeback

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has put on hold his planned collection of the African Democratic Congress membership card, amid growing speculation that former President Goodluck Jonathan may join the 2027 presidential race and he is being courted by the ADC.

Atiku, who recently resigned his membership of the Peoples Democratic Party after prolonged internal disputes, was scheduled to formalise his defection to ADC with the collection of his membership card.

The membership card would be presented to Atiku by ADC officials at his hometown of Jada, in the Jada Local Government Area of Adamawa State.

However, Sunday PUNCH gathered that the ceremony, which was slated for Wednesday, August 6, was postponed indefinitely without an official explanation from the former vice president’s camp.

This is even as a chieftain of ADC told Sunday PUNCH that the party had been holding discreet talks with Jonathan over a possible presidential run in 2027.

Speaking with Sunday PUNCH, the ADC Chairman of the Adamawa State chapter, Shehu Yohana, said Atiku’s formal reception into the party had been postponed without a new date.

“I spoke with the former vice president on the phone Friday morning, and he told me he has shifted the event to mid-August, but no specific date was mentioned.

This is even as a chieftain of ADC told Sunday PUNCH that the party had been holding discreet talks with Jonathan over a possible presidential run in 2027.

Speaking with Sunday PUNCH, the ADC Chairman of the Adamawa State chapter, Shehu Yohana, said Atiku’s formal reception into the party had been postponed without a new date.

“I spoke with the former vice president on the phone Friday morning, and he told me he has shifted the event to mid-August, but no specific date was mentioned.

“From the way things are going, due to one issue or the other, the event may get to September.

“He (Atiku) said that he was waiting for some All Progressives Congress governors who are planning to join ADC to decamp before his event in Jada,” Shehu said.

Tension over Atiku, Obi, Jonathan

Meanwhile, a chieftain of ADC at the national level, who did not want his name in print, told Sunday PUNCH that the postponement may not be unconnected with the power tussle between Atiku and former Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi.

The party chieftain alleged that the Obi political movement had hijacked ADC structures in the South, a situation, he said, had put Atiku’s presidential ambition under threat.

“From all indications, if things did not work out well for Atiku within few weeks to come, I see him defecting to the Social Democratic Party,” he stated.