Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has finally decided to return to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which he left PDP after disagreement with the party and the then President Olusegun Obasanjo on the eve of 2007 general.

Atiku, along with his supporters, joined the Action Congress (AC) and contested the 2007 presidential election under its platform.

Atiku’s media aide, Garba Shehu, told the BBC Hausa Service yesterday that the former vice president decided to rejoined the PDP following disagreements within Mega Summit Movement. Shehu said many stalwarts of the AC followed Atiku back to the PDP.

Shehu said those who said Atiku returned to the PDP because he would not get 2011 presidential ticket under the Mega Summit Movement are missing the point because “he (Atiku) did that in the interest of the nation and his people.”

He said Atiku’s return to his former party had nothing to do with the health of President Umaru Yar’adua and the PDP’s decision that 2011 presidential candidate of the party will come from the North.

Shehu however refused to say whether Atiku would contest the 2011 presidential election or not, insisting that Atiku left the PDP in 2007 when he and his loyalists were denied registration.