Defection: APC Suffers Huge Losses

 

 

It was another round of huge losses for the All Progressives Congress (APC) as Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki and Kwara State governor, Alhaji Abdulfattah Ahmed, yesterday bade farewell to the ruling party.

 

Saraki and Ahmed have now pitched tent with their former party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

 

Nigeria’s ambassador to South Africa, Alhaji Musa Ibeto, also dumped the APC for PDP. Another APC governor, Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State is expected to dump the party today.

 

Tambuwal, New Telegraph learnt, is expected to leave APC with 24 members of the state’s House of Assembly and all the 23 local government chairmen in the state.

 

The remaining six members of the state assembly are said to be loyal to a former governor of the state, Senator Aliyu Wamakko.

 

The defections are coming on the heels of last week’s dumping of the ruling party by 14 APC senators and 36 members of the House of Representatives. The lawmakers moved to the opposition PDP on Tuesday and Benue State governor, Dr. Samuel Ortom, followed suit on Wednesday.

 

Saraki and Ahmed made their defection public in separate announcements in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital yesterday. Ahmed was first to announce his defection through a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media, Dr. Muideen Akorede.

 

“Following due consultations with the people and in response to calls by major stakeholder groups in the state, Kwara State governor, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed, today (Tuesday) defected to the PDP, having realised that the APC can no longer serve as a platform for achieving the aspirations and expectations of his people,” Akorede said.

 

Moments later, Saraki’s own came via a tweet on his Twitterhandle, @bukolasaraki, while meeting with leaders of his political structure across the state.

 

“I wish to inform Nigerians that after extensive consultations, I have decided to take my leave out of the APC,” Saraki stated.

 

The Senate President had arrived Ilorin at about 4:40p.m. yesterday in company of all members of the National Assembly from the state.

 

Saraki said his decision to dump the APC, which he helped into power in 2015, was based on the insistence of his supporters and the guidance he received from God.

 

Saraki made his decision known during a stakeholders’ meeting in his Ilorin residence. In attendance at the meeting were Governor Ahmed, all members of the National Assembly from the state, 23 members of the state’s House of Assembly and local government chairmen and members of the state executive council.

 

He said: “We discussed this issue last week when I came home. You told me that you were tired of APC, but I asked you to exercise patience. I told you that I will seek God’s guidance and feed you back on my return to Ilorin.

 

 

 

Indications that Saraki and Ahmed will leave the APC emerged last week when the governor met with stakeholders in the party from across the three senatorial districts of Kwara State.

 

The Senate President noted during the meeting that APC has not met the expectations of the people of the state. The stakeholders had insisted at the meeting that the Senate President and the governor should dump the APC and lead them to another party.

 

Meanwhile, National Publicity Secretary of APC and Saraki’s loyalist, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, who was also reported to have dumped the party yesterday, denied resigning his position.

 

There were reports that Abdullahi had resigned and moved his belongings away from the party secretariat, but the APC spokesperson told a correspondent on telephone that there was no iota of truth in the report.

 

It was gathered that Abdullahi had been absent from the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) meetings, a situation that had fuelled the speculation that he may have concluded arrangements to leave the party even as there is anxiety that he is a mole due to his closeness to Saraki.

 

But, Abdullahi told New Telegraph that he is not considering leaving the party, stressing that he came through the front door and will not go through the back door.

 

On his absence during the NWC meetings, he said that he actually notified the national leadership of the party of his absence.

 

His words: “It is not true that I have resigned, and let me emphasis that there is no iota of truth in it. I can understand where the speculation is coming from perhaps because I was absent during the NWC meeting on Monday.