According to him, at 77 on November 20, he has become an elder statesman.
He noted that there had been other statesmen who had served and would continue to serve Nigeria eminently without carrying any party card.
Speaking in Uyo during a press conference organised in his honour by Akwa Ibom Liberation Coalition on Tuesday, Attah said he had always been a committed professional in politics and not a professional or career politician.
“So, I can formally state that I have quit partisan politics to play the role of an elder statesman and to continue to serve this country with love, strength and faith with integrity to the best of my ability.
“Let nobody take this to mean that I want to remain in the Peoples Democratic Party or therefore jump to the opposite conclusion that I am going over to the APC or any other party for that matter,” he said.
The former governor, a PDP Board of Trustees member, criticised the interview the PDP National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Olisa Metuh, granted to a national newspaper on Sunday, where he doubted Attah’s membership of the PDP.
The ex-governor said when Metuh was asked why the Ekweremadu reconciliation committee did not contact him (Attah), he (Metuh) asked if the former governor was still a member of the PDP.
He also alleged that Metuh accused him of having “made utterances for PDP to fail”.
Attah added, “Indeed, I made several utterances and I stand by all of them, including those ones for which I was, from time to time, accused of anti-party activities. The tragedy for the PDP is to now blame its failure on such utterances rather than its perilous refusal to heed the warnings they conveyed.
“Elections are conducted to fill vacancies, but PDP would start by announcing that there is no vacancy. Then it would offer automatic tickets to a set of people. And when pressure mounts, it would switch the same automatic tickets to another set of people.
“To bounce back as Metuh claims it will, the PDP must stop looking for who to blame and reorder its ways along the aims and ideals of its founding fathers of which I am one.”
Attah urged Akwa Ibom people to take the opportunity created by the Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal that sat in Abuja, ordering a rerun in 18 local government areas in the state, to liberate themselves from imposition and impunity.
Culled from Punch newspaper
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