 |
| President Goodluck Jonathan |
By Enyioha Opara
Deputy Governor of Niger State, Alhaji Ahmed Ibeto and 200
0ther office holders in the state on Monday dumped the ruling Peoples
Democratic Party and joined the opposition All Progressives Congress in Minna,
the state capital.
Ibeto and the others joined the APC to welcome its
presidential candidate, Maj.- Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), who was in the
state for campaigns.
The deputy governor’s defection from the PDP coincided with
the flag-off of the party’s campaign in Kotangora.
Announcing his defection to newsmen in Minna, Ibeto said, “I
am on my way to welcome our party leader and presidential candidate, Gen.
Muhammadu Buhari at Minna airport for his campaign rally in Niger State.”
He attributed the reason for his defection to injustice
allegedly meted out to him and other contestants for the state PDP governorship
ticket, describing as flawed the primaries, which he said was skewed to favour
a particular candidate.
He said, “The electoral process that threw up Alhaji Umar
Nasko as PDP governorship candidate was not in accordance with the PDP
electoral law and the constitution.
“It is true we are defecting to APC because the primaries we
conducted was not in accordance with the PDP constitution.
“Myself and other aggrieved PDP members decided to petition
the national headquarters of the party on the outcome of the governorship
primaries with a view to address the obvious injustice but we met a brick wall.
“We are expecting justice from the party’s national office
but nothing was forthcoming hence we decided to join APC.”
Among those who defected along with Ibeto are serving
members of the National Assembly, members of state House of Assembly, former
commissioners and former local government chairmen.
Culled from Punch
No comments:
Post a Comment