Shekarau Defects, Promises To Work For Jonathan Abubakar Salihi, Adesuwa Tsan — January 30, 2014 Former Kano State governor and presidential candidate of the defunct ANPP in 2011 Ibrahim Shekarau yesterday defected from the All Progressives Congress (APC) to the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), promising to support the re-election bid of President Goodluck Jonathan in 2015. The event attracted hundreds of supporters who renamed Jonathan “Juniadu Garba”. Speaking on the occasion, Shekarau said, “Today as we decamp out of the APC which we helped nurture and brought to the limelight, we understand that it is not the name of a party that matters but whom you are going to work with.” He said APC was created just six months ago with a mandate to its caretaker committee to ensure elections in all structures of the party that involved leadership, “but to our utmost dismay today, exactly six months, there is nothing on ground to suggest that the party is serious and ready to even elect a new leadership of the party”. He noted that after the coming into the party by some governors with their groups, “because we knew they have no party platform, they now resorted to all forms of unconstitutionalities in active connivance with some of the party leadership, and we did all we could to remind them of the constitutional provisions of the party, but to no avail”. Shekarau said: ‘In just a few days the APC would be six months old and, in these six months, various unconstitutional things have been done in the party. We challenge these acts and we even presented a petition exactly six weeks today but no acknowledgement, no contact, not even an emissary was sent to us. “This is the same thing with Sokoto, Adamawa, Kwara, and even Rivers states — everywhere the PDP governors have decided to come in and join the APC, it is trouble and failure to address the petition. It is a clear indication to us that the leadership of the party has taken sides and are not prepared to address genuine grievances raised by us and the principles of democracy.” Shekarau noted that, as if that was not enough in Kano, they created a 250-member committee who were the main caucus committee of the old ANPP and resent them to Abuja but all to no avail. “That is what provoked them to request our defection.” The defection of Shekarau alongside his hundreds of supporters was dramatized as he asked for somebody to move the motion for such. One Alhaji Shehu Maigari Doguwa on behalf of the stakeholders moved it and was seconded by Alhaji Yakubu Musa Hausawa, the secretary of all 44 local government secretaries. As the event was ongoing, the crowd started shouting “sai Junaidu Garba”, referring to Jonathan. Hundreds of them wore the usual south-south hats, indicating their open loyalty to Jonathan. 11 Kano APC reps disown ex-gov Following yesterday’s defection of Shekarau from the APC to the PDP, 11 members of the Kano APC caucus in the House of Representatives (who were members of the defunct ANPP and CPC) have announced that they have ceased to be loyal to the former governor, while pledging loyalty to the APC. By this act, the lawmakers – nine former ANPP and two former CPC — have withdrawn their support for Shekarau who was their leader in the ANPP. In a press briefing by the lawmakers in the National Assembly yesterday, Hon. Suleiman Abdulrahman Kawu (APC, Kano), who is the deputy leader of the opposition in the House, speaking on behalf of the other 10 lawmakers, said: “We wish to make it categorically clear today that we are not leaving the APC for any political party. We have sacrificed a lot and have come a long way in the struggle to emancipate our people from the bondage of PDP misrule. “We equally wish to call on the leadership and all party faithful to ensure transparency, fairness, internal democracy and adherence to rule of law and laid-down procedures so as to provide level playing field for party members to realise their individual ambitions without any hindrance.” He added: At this crucial stage of our journey, we will not look back, or backtrack; we will not look sideways, we will not leave our beloved APC for anything else. “Today under PDP, we are witnessing unprecedented level of corruption, insecurity, poverty and political instability in Nigeria more than ever before. We therefore see the coming of APC as an opportunity to right the many wrongs of the PDP and once again put Nigeria back on the pedestal of growth, development, economic prosperity and make it an egalitarian society where the rule of law and social justice prevail for the common good. “However, much as we express hope and aspiration for a better Nigeria under the APC, we are not unaware of the daunting challenges confronting our new party since we are all coming from different political parties and background. “We wish to call on our constituents and Nigerians in general to give their support and contribution towards providing strong platform for progressive-minded politicians to come together and give Nigerians a better choice for alternative leadership.” APC is a party without membership – Bafarawa Meanwhile, former Sokoto State governor Attahiru Bafarawa has said that the APC has remained a political party without membership six months after its formation. Bafarawa, who was until now a chieftain of the APC, spoke at the national secretariat of the PDP in Abuja. Bafarawa, who has formally defected to the PDP and was at the secretariat with his supporters, challenged the leaders of the APC to show Nigerians the party’s membership register to debunk his claim. “It is sad that up till this moment, the APC has no membership register, nobody has APC membership card after six months of their merging,’’ Bafarawa said. According to him, the APC is only operating on the pages of newspapers. He, therefore, urged the national chairman of the PDP, Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu, to immediately allow the party to embark on mass membership drive nationwide. This, he said, would reveal that the PDP was alive across the country, “unlike the lame-duck APC which could not boast of a single member with its membership card after six months of its registration’’. The former governor said that he was defecting from the APC to PDP with his followers in Sokoto and across the nation to contribute his quota to the development of the PDP and the country. “We are not joining PDP because it is a ruling party or because we are looking for appointments or because we are looking for material things. “We are joining PDP because we want to continue to contribute our own quota to the development of the party and the country,” he said. Bafarawa said that several PDP leaders including former President Olusegun Obasanjo, the late Solomon Lar and Chief Tony Anenih had made frantic efforts to woo him into the PDP with mouth-watering offers. He said that their offers were, however, rejected because he was not interested in material things but the development of the country as a whole. He disclosed that the day Mua’zu was made the new national chairman of the PDP, he knew his days were numbered in the APC. Bafarawa, who was a former presidential aspirant on the platform of the DPP, said he decided to join the PDP based on his longstanding relationship with Mu`azu. He advised the new PDP national chairman to lead the party based on its manifesto and constitution if he must excel in the party without having any problem. He urged the PDP chairman to arrange for President Goodluck Jonathan to visit Sokoto State to receive the new members into the PDP fold. In his response, Mu`azu expressed happiness at having Bafarawa in the PDP fold. He consequently directed that the PDP membership card be given to him.
Posted on: Thu, 30 Jan 2014 10:14:50 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015