A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party and former Secretary to the Oyo State Government, Dr Dejo Raimi has described the exit of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar as a welcome development, but said he had taken his negative influence away to his new party.

Abubakar, a founding member of the PDP, in announcing his exit from the party said the problem of the ruling party was too overwhelming, hence the reason for its being intractable over the years.

According to him, the declaration of former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar for the All Progressives Congress (APC) at the weekend will not unsettled the PDP. The former Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the Governing Council of the Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA) said, "he has negative value in PDP and his exit is a plus to us in the party because he has gone with his negative influence.

"He disorganized the party in the North of the Niger, so, it is certain that relative peace will reign in the area. The coast will now become clearer for the PDP by his exit to APC. When he was the opposition candidate in 2007, how many votes did he score?

"I can see him and Muhammed Buhari fighting each other to finish for the APC presidential ticket and eventually, one of them will emerge and the other will go and pick the ticket of any of the other parties that will not field presidential candidates.

"They will weaken themselves for us in the PDP and we will find a way to escape them and win. You know I always say it that all of them put together cannot unsettle PDP, so, we are not moved, not even with a person like the former VP", Raimi maintained.

The PDP chieftain took a swipe at Abubakar, describing him as a shameless person who, having enjoyed greatly in the PDP would only go and suffer in his new party.

He noted that the former VP "is just looking for political relevance, you know it is not easy for somebody that have been second in command in a country like Nigeria to suddenly find himself in oblivion. What is left for him is to be the president which unfortunately he cannot attain in APC.