Barely 200 days to general elections in 2019, the gale of defection sweeping the APC seem to be in full throttles with no seeming sign of abating in sight as the Sokoto State Governor Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal and the National Publicity Secretary of the APC Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi announced their defection from the All Progressives Congress APC to the main opposition party Peoples’ Democratic Party PDP
This development is coming barely a day after the Senate President Bukola Saraki and the Kwara State Governor Alhaji Abdulfattah Ahmed announced their defection to the Peoples Democratic Party PDP.
In a statement, the former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal pointed out issues of inequality, insecurity, injustice and bad governance as issues that necessitate the renouncement of his APC membership.
According to him; “Four years into what ought to be a new order as desired and elected by Nigerians, the nation is unfortunately going through the most difficult and precarious times, since the civil war: with ethno, religious and regional distrust at its highest ebb”. “…because I am unwilling to be part of frightful conspiracy against the cohesion of the Nigerian State, Nigerian Youth and people because I am unable to feel at ease in the face of a progressively divided nation and, above all, because I am totally unable to reconcile myself to a national leadership that offers no redeeming moral beacons that I am here with you today; to announce withdrawal of my membership of the All Progressives Congress and return to the People’s Democratic Party.”
“I speak to you today with a mixture to sadness and relief because I did not expect that the APC, which promised so much when the Peoples’ Democratic Party stood under the sway of impunity, could not maintain or manage whatever good it inherited. It has also not broken new grounds in any positive sense but has instead reached historically unprecedented heights of impunity in all manner of vices far above and beyond the challenges which made some of us to leave the PDP about four years ago to join other s to form the APC; The party that has brazenly turned itself into a sanctuary for the corrupt and a machine for rigging and for the rape of democracy.”
In a similar development the National Publicity Secretary to the All Progressives Congress APC Mallam Bolaji Abdulahi has also renounced his membership of the ruling party. In a statement, Mallam Abdullahi sighted usurpation of his role as spokesperson of the party, and the unlawful dissolution of the states’ party executives as reasons for his defection.
In a statement signed by him, Mallam Abdullahi noted,
In view of the recent political development in the country and within the All Progressives Congress APC, I have decided to resign my position as the National Publicity Secretary as well as my membership of the party with effect from today.
In the last few days I have had to endure the flagrant usurpation of my role as the spokesman of the party in a manner that I consider unbefitting of a ruling party and inconsistent with my ethical standards.”
Report by Adefarati Abiodun for IbadanCity ANNOUNCER
