6,000 APC members defect to PDP in Yobe, Jigawa

More than 6,000 members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) have defected to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Yobe and Jigawa states.
In Gulani Local Government, Yobe State, 5,000 members defected to the PDP while more than 1,000 defected in Maigatari Local Government, Jigawa State.
The leader of the Yobe defectors, Alhaji Hasan Amana, said that they decided to join the change train in the state led by the PDP governorship candidate, Mr. Maina Waziri, who he described as “the right man to rescue our state from the hands of the heartless people that have ruled the state since 1999”. The leader of the defectors, who is also the leader of the internally displaced people, while speaking to show the neglect they suffered in the hands of the Governor Ibrahim Gaidam administration, said that since they fled from their local government to another local government in the North-East state, the state government has neglected them.
He disclosed further that it was the Gombe State governor , Ibrahim Dankwanmbo, who gave them shelter and feeding.
He said further that “our own state governor has never, for once, visited us in Bajoga, Gombe State where we now live”. He said as if that was not enough, the senator representing the district and the former governor, Bukar Abba Ibrahim, has also never visited them.
The defectors, who trooped out en masse to receive the candidate, pledged to vote for the PDP in the state and also vote for President Goodluck Jonathan.
Receiving them, Waziri promised to give them better accommodation and empowerment tools and finances to start their lives afresh.
In Jigawa State, those who defected belonged to a faction of APC led by Ubale Hashim.
Addressing a press conference in Dutse, the state capital, the team leader, Alhaji Alasan Madana, said their defection was due to poor organisation, division within the party, and leadership tussle amongst APC’s high-ranking officers.
“Persistent lack of trust among our leaders, coupled with poor
organisation within the APC fold, and lack of faith in ideology was what motivated our resolve in dumping the party for the PDP”, said the group leader.
According to Madana, “the prolonged disaffection amongst the gubernatorial aspirants, Ubale Hashim and Badaru Abubakar, led to our exit as the party lacks internal
democracy, and faith in leading us to success, hence our resolve to dump it for PDP based on conviction that PDP is the only party for progress. We tried our best in resolving our party’s internal squabbles amicably but to no avail. Despite our commitment and strategies, we failed in our approach to mediate and resolve the impending leadership crisis bedeviling our former party due to overzealousness of our former leaders, since their concern was not for the
party, but their own personal interest”
Spokesperson for women defectors, Hajia Magajiya Nasiru Maigatari, said: “My conviction to embrace the PDP was informed on the party’s good initiatives in achieving success, in transforming Jigawa State under the visionary leadership of Governor Sule Lamido.
“PDP is a party of progress, peace and stability. As an activist, I must associate myself with the progressives, and a party that has concern, love and compassion towards the emancipation of the mankind, and not joining a party of betrayals or capitalist”