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  • Heavyweights desert PDP

    Heavyweights desert PDP

    Deputy governor, senators, ex-minister quit in Edo, Kwara, Benue, others

    A wave of defections has hit the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

    It was not immediately clear yesterday whether the party’s loss in the March 28 presidential election triggered the defections.

    In Jigawa, Kwara, Kebbi and Gombe states, key political figures yesterday defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    In Benue State, former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice Michael Kaase Aondoakaa resigned from the PDP. He is yet to join another party.

    In Edo State, the PDP candidate in the 2012 governor ship election, Maj.- Gen. Charles Arhiavbere was received into the APC yesterday by Governor Adams Oshiomhole. He announced his defection at the weekend.

    Jigawa State Deputy Governor Ahmed Mahmoud led the defectors at a ceremony in his home town Gumel.

    Mahmoud along with a Special Adviser to Governor Sule Lamido, Alhaji Bello Dansokoto; the immediate past executive Chairman, Dutse Capital Development Authority, Alhaji Bashir Aminu and the immediate past Chairman of Gumel Local Government Council, Alhaji Ya’u Kura, defected, taking with them thousands of supporters.

    The defectors were received by executive members of the party and a massive crowd of APC supporters. They described their exit from the PDP as “good riddance”.

    Mahmoud, who spoke at the venue, said:  “My defection is as a result of my personal and supporters’ interest that prevailed on my conscience to do the right thing.”

    The deputy governor, who spoke amidst shouts of “change” by thousands of APC supporters, added: “I have been loyal to Governor Sule Lamido up to this moment and I pray that all of you should as a matter of respect reciprocate same to me and this party.”

    He said he had no regret over his decision to join the APC.

    Mahmoud becomes the fourth deputy governor to defect – the third to leave the PDP for the APC – after Niger State Deputy Governor Ahmed Ibeto and Ondo State Deputy Governor  Ali Olanusi. Rivers State Deputy Governor Tele Ikuru left the APC for the PDP.

    But after his action yesterday, the state PDP chapter issued a statement saying it had expelled Mahmud.

    The statement signed by the PDP chairman of Galagamma ward in Gumel, Jigawa State Alhaji Ibrahim Kafinta, said the decision to expel Mahmoud was taken during a stakeholders meeting held in his ward.

    Kafinta alleged that the deputy governor sabotaged the party during the National Assembly elections.

    He said the Gumel Local Government headquarters of the party had endorsed the expulsion.

    Former Governor Saminu Turaki also defected to the APC.

    Turaki requested that his official reception into the party should be held at his Kazaure Emirate home town today.

    He was joined on the defection train by Alhaji Abba Anas and Senator Muhammad Dudu. Dudu represented Jigawa North-East Senatorial District between 1999 and 2007.

    Receiving the defectors, APC Chairman Ado Sani Kiri said the party had increased from strength to strength. He assured the new members that they would be accorded the same treatment as those they met in the party.

    One of the defectors, former House of Representatives member Alhaji Anas, explained why he joined the APC.

    The former member representing Guri/Hadejia/Kirikasamma Federal Constituency said:  ”I am joining the PDP due to the overwhelming support Nigerians gave to General Muhammadu Buhari and one cannot be left out”.

    Gombe State House of Assembly Majority Leader Mamman Alkali yesterday joined hundreds of others who left the ruling PDP for the APC.

    The defectors included over 50 Special and Personal Assistants to Governor Ibrahim Dankwambo.

    Alhaji Ibrahim Zamfara, a member of PDP Elders Committee, who spoke on behalf of the defectors, said they dumped the PDP because they wanted to avoid a situation where Gombe would end up as an opposition state.

    ”We have decided to embrace change because of shoddy happenings in the PDP. The party lacks transparency and we are fed up with the discriminatory activities of PDP in Gombe State.

    ”We feel it will be better for us to pitch our tent with the winning train so that the state can benefit and move forward,” he said.

    Receiving the defectors, APC governorship candidate Alhaji Inuwa Yahaya promised them a fair deal, saying they should feel free and consider themselves as bona fide members of the party.

    He said their decision was timely and would further enhance APC’s  fortunes ahead of Saturday’s governorship and legislative elections

    In Ilorin, no fewer than 20,000 supporters of the 2011 governorship candidate of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in Kwara State, Mohammed Dele Belgore (SAN), have defected to the APC.

    The defectors were led by Rev. Bunmi Olusona, a close associate of Belgore.

    Belgore was the state’s coordinator of the Jonathan Campaign Organisation.

    Mr. Adebayo Ajimoti, Alhaji Gobir Mohammed, Alhaji Dele Sarkinwa, Dr. Mohammed Potun, Funso Agaka, Alhaji Nasiru Ubandawaki, Mr. Yunus Abdullahi and Mr. Dada Abiodun also defected.

    In a letter addressed to the state’s chairman of APC, Alhaji Ishola Balogun-Fulani, the former PDP leaders traced their decision to a meeting they held with the APC leader in the state, Dr. Bukola Saraki, and their realisation that the PDP is “made up of people who do not have the interest of the state at heart”.

    The letter, dated April 6, 2015, described their decision to join the PDP in the first instance, as a result of “ignorance”, They lamented that what they found in the PDP was best described as belonging to a “generation of vipers”.

    The letter said: “We make bold to tell Kwarans that they should stay away from the party because it is a sinking ship.” The letter claimed that the PDP had been able to produce an array of bad candidates who voters have come to see as clueless politicians.

    The defectors also wrote that they were never comfortable with the environment due to what they labelled as the practice of politics of bitterness by “self-seeking and attention-craving politicians”.

    The defectors said “for continued progress and prosperity”, the new APC members directed their followers to freely go to thelr wards and team up with the APC and vote for the party’s candidates for governorship and House of Assembly positions.

    Aondoakaa (SAN) sent a letter of resignation “with immediate effect” from the PDP to his ward chairman, asking that his name be struck off the members’ list in Lessel Township Ward.

    Aondoakaa, said he came to “this important decision” after due consultation with his family, friends and political associates. He said he would concentrate on his legal practice.

    On the governorship and House of Assembly elections, he enjoined the people to vote according to their conscience.

    The immediate past chairman of the PPD in Kebbi State and dozens of other leaders have dumped the party for the APC,.

    Three aggrieved governorship aspirants – Mansir Mansa, Hussaini Adamu and Zubairu Dabai –  also defected to the APC.

    They accused the PDP of victimising them and expressed a lack of confidence that the party will give them justice.

    Other party leaders who moved to the APC are: Abbas Jega, Danjuma Kamba, Shehu Malisa, Bala Gwandu, Rilwanu Auwal, Ilyasu Kambaza, Dambegu Vice, Usman Zuru, Danjuma Zuru, Aliyu Kalgo, Haruna Magarza, Abu Dangoje, and Bello Kaoje, who lost the Suru/Bagudu Federal Constituency election to an APC candidate.

    The running mate of the APC governorship candidate, Sama’ila Yombe, who received the defectors in Zuru on Sunday, said the party was consulting with many other PDP members to join the APC before the governorship election.

    “PDP is not a party to remain in,” he said.

     

  • We’ve lost 56 members in Rivers, says APC

    We’ve lost 56 members in Rivers, says APC

    •PDP: we’re not to blame

    PICTURE of the political killings in Rivers State was presented yesterday in Abuja, with the All Progressives Congress (APC) alleging that it lost 56 members.

    Besides, over 150 others were victims of harassment, said the party. It accused security agents and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of complicity in the situation.

    At a news conference in Abuja, APC National Publicity Secretary Lai Mohammed said  the development had become worrisome, considering the fact that these killings were “in the full glare of security agents”.

    Mohammed is concerned that the killings have increased ahead of the weekend’s governorship and state Assembly elections.

    He queried why nobody had been arrested by security agents for the killings.

    He said: “We have lost 55 persons so far in the run-off to the elections. APC does not have the capacity nor the will to frustrate elections. You all saw what happened in Rivers State during the last elections.

    “ If you did not see anything, at least you saw when the Returning Officer was asked to read the results, he could not because it was not written by him.

    “Our party is a party that believes in the Rule of Law. They have the police, the DSS and INEC. They have these three groups which they are using to subvert democracy in Rivers State. Everyday, they are killing our people and nobody is being held responsible.

    “We complained that elections did not take place in Rivers. We wrote a petition on that and the Chairman of INEC, Prof. Attahiru Jega, said they set up an Investigative Committee and that what they came out with does not give them any reason to cancel the election. We accept that, but that is without prejudice to our right to challenge these infractions at the Election Petition Tribunal.

    “We are saying two things here. First, we are as much concerned for a peaceful, free and fair election as much as being concerned about the safety and security of our people. We are losing lives everyday and this is uncalled for.

    “How come Rivers State has recorded more deaths than any other state in the run-off to this election? Or these people that are dying, are they ghosts? We report every time and we hear that the police are after the killers, yet last night one of our leaders was killed. We are saying all these so that we don’t end up creating a situation that even after elections, we will not have sustainable peace.

    “I do not see why federal institutions should be used to further the interest of individuals or groups. Federal institutions should be neutral. We are not crying wolf but saying that our people are dying daily and we are asking both international and local observers to take a look at this and prevent a total breakdown.

    “We have won the Federal Government and so why should we be interested in oil revenue coming from one state? We are running a federal system of government under which the states have some autonomy. It does not matter who is the governor of Rivers State. Whoever is the governor of Rivers State will have to administer the resources of Rivers State. What we are saying is, let the people of Rivers State choose who they want.”

    The APC accused the PDP and its governorship candidate, Mr. Nyesom Wike, “aided by the security agencies”,  of being behind he killings.

    “Though this marauding started before the March 28th Presidential and National Assembly elections, it has become progressively worse as the governorship elections approach on Saturday.

    “Last week, nine members of our party were killed in cold blood while many others were injured, when armed PDP thugs invaded Obrikom and Obor communities in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government. These thugs set ablaze the residence of Vincent Ogbagu, our candidate for the House of Assembly elections.

    “Dozens of our members have been arrested on frivolous charges, just to put them away. At least four persons were arrested just because they defected to our party.

    “APC members have been subjected to persistent harassment and intimidation across the state, using the police in Rivers and the Zone 6 in Calabar. Over 150 prominent members have been victims of this unprovoked persecution.

    “And just today, we received another sad news from Rivers. An APC chieftain, Christopher Adube, was reportedly shot dead at the weekend. Adube, who hails from the Egbema Local Government Area, was said to have been shot dead at his residence. These are just some of the instances of what APC members and supporters in Rivers State have been subjected to in recent days.”

    Mohammed accused security agents of  colluding with PDP thugs to attack APC supporters.

    He said: “It is very sad indeed that the terrorising of APC members and supporters in Rivers State has been carried out despite the presence of the police and other security agencies in the state.

    “In fact, most of the attacks were carried out with the collusion of the security agencies, who have exchanged the garb of partisanship for that of professionalism.

    “Elements of the security agencies have also participated directly in the targeted harassment and intimidation of our members. Even when our members have run to the police for succour, they have found none.

    “The case of the Chairman, Caretaker Committee, of the Gokana Local Government Area, Mr. Kadilo Kabari, was particularly astonishing. He and Senator Magnus Abe, who represents Rivers South-East Senatorial District in the National Assembly, were attacked by PDP thugs right inside the Divisional Police Headquarters at Kpor.

    “Their offence was that they dared to challenge PDP thugs, dressed in INEC kits, who were engaged in massive rigging during last week’s Presidential and National Assembly elections in the state. That these PDP thugs could use a police station for rigging speaks volumes about the role of the security agencies in that election.

    “Of course, it is needless to say that the collusion of INEC with the PDP and the police to pave the way for unbridled violence against APC members and supporters, and the subsequent rigging of the elections, was spearheaded by the Resident Electoral Commissioner for the Rivers, Ms. Gesilia Khan.

    “This issue is already the subject of a very strong petition which our party has written to the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Abuja.”

    He said the party was confident that its petition was already receiving the desired attention.

    Mohammed added: “We have decided to give the details of the relentless killing, maiming, harassment and intimidation of our members and supporters in Rivers State before, during and after the presidential and National Assembly elections so that Nigerians can see that everything has been done, and is still being done, to make sure that free, fair and peaceful elections do not hold in the state

    “The attacks, arrests and intimidation targeted at APC members and supporters in Rivers have become even more widespread in the run up to the governorship and House of Assembly elections. We are very concerned that the prevailing atmosphere of mindless violence and brigandage does not augur well for a free, fair and credible elections in the state.

    “We are worried that no one has been held responsible even where our members have been killed, and that the police and other security agencies, as well as INEC, have turned themselves to appendages of the PDP, in what is nothing but the height of impunity.

    “We are therefore using this opportunity to call on local and international observers, as well as the Civil Society Organisations under the aegis of The Situation Room, to pay a close attention to Rivers State – as well as other states considered to be flash points – during the forthcoming governorship and House of Assembly elections.

    “In particular, they should beam their searchlight on the role of the security agencies and INEC officials in Rivers, who have decided to jettison their neutrality and join the fray.”

    Mohammed said APC is opposed to the attachment of security agents to PDP officials during the governorship poll.

    He said: “To prevent the security agencies from becoming the tools of harassment and intimidation in the hands of PDP members and officials, we are opposed to the attachment of security personnel to PDP officials during the elections. This will go a long way in reducing cases of persecution of our members.

    “The hierarchies of the security agencies, especially the police and the DSS, as well as INEC, must read the riot act to their members posted to Rivers State for election duties. The kind of mindless collusion with the PDP by the same officials mandated to ensure free, fair, credible and peaceful polls – which was witnessed in Rivers during the presidential elections – will not be tolerated this time.

    “We appeal to our members and supporters in Rivers State to continue to conduct themselves peacefully, while making sure they document every case of killing, maiming, harassment and intimidation targeted at them, as well as all instances of election malpractice. In the fullness of time, no one who has engaged in this untoward actions will go scot-free as they will be made to face the full wrath of the law.”

  • PDP members defect to APC in Benue

    PDP members defect to APC in Benue

    The victory of Gen. Muhammadu Buhari  of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the recent presidential elections has had a ripple effect in some parts of the country.

    In Benue State, where the APC won two senatorial seats some  number seats in the House of Representatives, three top members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have led of their supporters and other party members to defect to the APC.

    The defectors are: two former council chairmen, Abaji Godfrey Ichoghol and Andrew Ayande and a former Adviser to Governor Gabriel Suswan, Moses Adasu, and the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor, Mr. Francis Nyibiam and his colleague, Anta Igbaato.

    Former Youth Director, Governor Gabriel Suswam Campaign Organisation, Chief John Akperashi Gum, is also scheduled to defecting to the APC today (April 7). The APC is also believed to be making plans to receive other PDP chieftains such as, former Minister of Justice, Mike Aondoakaa (SAN), Deputy Governor of Benue State, Chief Steven Lawani, and Emmanuel Udende, a PDP member-elect of the House of Representatives for the Ukum, Katsina-Ala and Logo Federal Constituency.

    Before the presidential elections, Akperashi withdrew all his campaign vehicles from the PDP Campaign Organisation and rebranded them with the campaign pictures of Gen. Buhari and Chief Ortom, the APC governorship candidate. He also formally donated an undisclosed sum of money to the Ortom/Abounu Campaign Organisation.

    Meanwhile, a PDP chieftain was beaten and stripped naked by angry PDP members for campaigning for the governorship candidate of the APC in this week’s election.

    The incident happened at a birthday thanksgiving service of Solomon Wombo, a PDP member and Special Adviser to the Governor on Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, held at the Akume Atongo Stadium in Kastina-Ala Local Government Area.

    Akor Ikyegh, a relation to the wife of the celebrant, a former Youth Leader in Ushongo Local Government Area and personal aide to Prof. Daniel Iornem, a member of the Suswam Campaign Organisation, was said to have been caught distributing handbills of Samuel Ortom, the governorship candidate of the APC.

    It was learnt that irate youths at the event which had Governor Suswam and other PDP chieftains in attendance, descended on Ikyegh after they found a teenager distributing handbills with Ortom’s message titled: ‘Rotation of governorship position among Benue churches: The time for the Pentecostal.’

    While beating the unnamed youth, he confessed that the handbills were given to him by Akor Ikyegh.

    They then searched for Ikyegh, beat him mercilessly before finally stripping him of his clothes. He was saved from death by men of the Nigeria Police as well as other security agents at the event.

  • PDP, INEC plot to rig Kogi poll, alleges APC

    •INEC: allegation untrue

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kogi State has alleged that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was conniving with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to use its ad hoc workers to discard the use of card readers.

    It said the plan was being hatched to manipulate the house of assembly poll in favour of PDP candidates.

    The Chairman, Publicity Committee of the APC Election Committee, Ojapa Ibrahim, who addressed reporters yesterday in

    Lokoja, said in the bid to rig the election, thugs have been recruited and given weapons to disrupt the poll, especially in APC’s stronghold.

    INEC said the allegation was a pack of lies.

    The commission’s spokesman, Mr. Ameh Mathew, said it had no interest in any candidate or party.

    He said INEC would remain neutral as it demonstrated during the March 28 elections.

    APC urged security agencies to forestall crisis.

    It enjoined its members not to be intimidated by the PDP, saying they should come out en masse on Saturday and exercise their franchise.

  • Seven is a number

    Absurdity has reached new heights in Ekiti State under Governor Ayo Fayose of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). It is beyond belief that seven PDP members of the Ekiti State House of Assembly, in a move that turned the Constitution on its head, ostensibly passed the state’s 2015 Appropriation Bill into law despite the clear lawlessness of the act. That the lawmakers conducted themselves in a dishonourable manner cannot be in doubt because they did not form a legal quorum in the 26-member legislature.

    It is unsurprising, and indeed appropriate, that the embattled Speaker, Dr. Adewale Omirin of the All Progressives Congress (APC), in a statement by his Special Adviser on Media, Wole Olujobi, described the empty show as “one in the series of comic tales by farcical politicians holding the reins of governance in Ekiti State.”  Omirin and 18 other APC members of the House of Assembly are currently fighting to re-establish sanity in the legislature after their dramatically undemocratic marginalisation and the emergence of a dubiously dominant group of lawless lawmakers.

    It is interesting that the power-backed seven reportedly approved N80.94 billion as budget, which was about N160 million higher than the figures presented to them by Fayose. The governor’s proposal was N80.77 billion. The group leader, Dele Olugbemi, was quoted as saying, “We decided to increase the budget estimate not for any reason but to prove that we are independent.” The difference in the figures was said to be for fixing the leaking roof of the Assembly complex. Even allowing for the benefit of the doubt, considering the ugly history of large-scale official corruption in power circles across the country, it might not be out of place to smell a rat in the narrative.

    Also, there was something fishy about comments credited to Fayose who spoke to journalists at the Murtala International Airport, Lagos, on his return from a foreign trip. Speaking about the 19 legislators who are in his administration’s bad books, Fayose was quoted as saying, “The Speaker just called me recently and asking for their Christmas gifts. I told him they should collect from Lagos and Osun State governments or the Speakers of those states.” Isn’t it food for thought that Fayose referred to Omirin as Speaker, suggesting that Olugbemi is merely being used for the spoiler’s role?

    Again, even allowing for the benefit of the doubt, considering the mud-slinging that has marked Fayose’s approach to governance, his remarks are more likely to be a continuation of the smear campaign against the opposition. It sounds far-fetched that the lawmakers on the other side would approach him for Yuletide presents, knowing full well that he is the kind of character who would readily use such a move to score political points.

    Fayose further said: “But in my state, you were elected by some people and the people had read the riot act to them that they will not come and destabilise the state. If you attempt it, the power of the people will rise against you because their power is higher than those of us who are in power.”

    No one is fooled by Fayose’s democratic posturing. The 19 beleaguered legislators are themselves representatives of the people, and their exclusion through undemocratic means is a reflection of megalomaniacal politics.

     

    •This article was first published on January 8

  • PDP: we ‘ll stand by Ekiti governor

    THE leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has condemned the impeachment move against Ekiti State Governor Ayo Fayose, saying the party will stand by the embattled him.

    A statement yesterday by the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, described the impeachment notice served the governor by the state’s House of Assembly as “emerging height of political recklessness”.

    The PDP called on Nigerians to stand up against what it termed “anti-democratic tendencies” and “senseless and unpatriotic impeachment move” against Fayose.

    “The PDP totally and unequivocally rejects the flimsy and unsubstantiated allegations concocted by the APC legislators against Governor Fayose. We state in very clear terms that we will stand with him and bear our full weight in defence of the mandate freely given to him by the people of Ekiti State,” the statement said.

  • Orji: vote for PDP candidates

    Abia State Governor Theodore Orji has enjoined Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) members and the people to vote the party’s candidates on Saturday.

    Speaking at the Abia Central mini campaign in Umuahia, the governor said he had confidence in the party’s candidates to deliver the dividends of democracy.

    Orji urged the Abia Central PDP candidates to be steadfast and to strive to win, stressing that it’s one of the ways to justify the confidence the party and state have in them.

    He thanked the people for voting PDP candidates in the Presidential and National Assembly elections and urged them to do likewise on Saturday to show that PDP was on ground.

    The governor asserted that the party had prospects for Ndigbo, adding that there is hope for the PDP in the state and the country despite the setback in the last elections.

    Minister of State for Defence, Col. Austin Akobundu (rtd), advised PDP members to ensure the success of the party’s  governorship and House of Assembly candidates.

    He thanked them for their votes in the March 28 elections.

    The House of Representatives candidates-elect; Sam Onuigbo and Darlington Nwokocha, thanked the Abia Central people for returning them and other PDP candidates, urging them to ensure PDP’s success on Saturday.

  • Ex-PDP guber candidate joins APC in Edo

    Ex-PDP guber candidate joins APC in Edo

    The governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2012 gubernatorial election in Edo State and national coordinator of the Goodluck Support Group and Goodluck Youth Initiative, Maj.Gen. Charles Arhiavbere (rtd) has become the first person in Edo State to leave the Peoples Democratic Party with over 10,000 of his supporters.

    General Arhiavbere who joined the All progressives Congress in Benin City, on Easter Sunday said “Since after the election of 2012 there has been heightened tension in Edo state which has made development slow and I believe my coming to meet with the Comrade Governor and APC which is now at the centre, speedy development will take place in Edo state.

    He said: “there will be peace, there will be stability and things can now happen faster.”

    Asked why he decided to jump ship just a few days after the PDP lost power at the federal level, Arhiavbere said; “I would not be one of the political leaders that would move Edo state backwards especially when the APC is now at the federal level.

    “Every well-meaning politician must come to the centre for rapid development. We can only do that if we give political stability to his Excellency the Comrade Governor of Edo state,” he continued “the party at the centre is All Progressives Congress and the party in Edo state is also APC why then should we be in opposition and I believe that I have the ground and the supporters to influence positively the election of April 11 for the State House of Assembly.”

    He assured Edo state people that with Comrade Oshiomhole, the gelegele seaport will be taken up by the APC-controlled Federal Government, maintaining that the dualization of the Benin –Lokoja road will be pursued to a logical conclusion.

    In his remark, Governor Oshiomhole said “it is great receiving Major-General Charles Arhiavbere who was my main opponent in the 2012 governorship election in Edo state and over the period he has seen through the political environment.

    “Even as he was in PDP, we have maintained a good relationship. That he has come to join us is in line with our tradition to try to consolidate democracy, open up the party to every genuine person who wants to join the party because politics is a game of numbers but this one is a quality number which makes it much more important for us.

    “It shows that our political contestation was nothing personal which is why we have no difficulties in embracing one another and welcoming him into the APC family’’.

    Oshiomhole continued: “I feel fulfilled because my mission in Edo state is to provide good governance by way of applying public funds in a way that will deliver happiness to the greatest number of our people but also to clean up the political space so that godfathers are permanently put out of business and very ordinary people with ideas can have a space to engage.’’

    Governor Oshiomhole who also received Hon Richard Lamai and Major Gen. Shaibu both from Edo North said “the more people that join us, the deeper the message that Edo electorates are the political leaders in APC.”

    He said “Richard has been a loud voice in PDP and he led a group called “PDP Reloaded” and everybody knows that he was very close to a chieftain of the PDP and he has worked there tirelessly over the years and  his coming to join us is to also enrich our party.’’

    While appreciating the supporters of the three former PDP supporters who also joined the APC, Oshiomhole enjoined them to come out en masse on Saturday, April 11 and vote for APC candidates for the Edo state House of Assembly in order to sustain development in the state.

  • Don’t repeat mistake of voting PDP in Kaduna -APC Chieftain

    Don’t repeat mistake of voting PDP in Kaduna -APC Chieftain

    Ahead of the April 11th governorship election, a chieftain of the All Progresives Congress (APC) from Southern Kaduna, Ibrahim Garaje Akut has called on the people of the area not to repeat the mistake of voting the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) ‎ again.

    He therefore appealed to his kinsmen to rally round support for the APC’s candidate, Mallam Nasir El-rufai in the saturday polls.

    Mr. Akut who contested for the House of Representative for Kaura Federal constituency at the primaries on the platform of the APC and lost to a former ‎Secretary to the State Government of Kaduna State and also a former Permanent Secretary cabinet office in the presidency Charles Bonet, further appealed to the people of the zone support the APC candidate so as to form the same party in the state as it is presently at the national.

    Although he frowned at the way and manner ‎the election went during the presidential polls where the zone gave their support to President Goodluck Jonathan of the PDP despite his glaring inability to tackle challenges bedeviling the nation, such as insecurity, corruption, impunity’, he said, there is the need to retrace step and avoid another mistake in the governorship election.

    He called particularly on the elders and traditional‎ and religious leaders of the southern Kaduna extraction to use their good positions to unite the people of the area and the state and country in particular rather engaging in activities that will divide the people.

    According to Mr. Akut, the APC governorship candidate is a trusted man with proven experience which when brought to bear will help to transform the state positively, he therefore appealed for an overwhelming support for him in the forthcoming polls.

    “The Deputy Governorship candidate Barnabas Bala Bantex is our own who severally have proven himself as a man of integrity, their combination in the governance of the state will not only unite the people of the state, it will ‎further draw Federal Government attention to the state and the southern Kaduna area.

    He said, Mallam El-rufai has severally identified with the challenges of the southern Kaduna people, particularly the recurring killings in the area and has promised if elected to bring a permanent end to killings and ensure that justice prevail in the zone in all their areas of ‘oppression’.

    “We have suffered a lot of neglect in our area, our people ‎are killed at any given opportunity and so far nothing tangible seems to be done about it, we cannot continue that way, there must be a change which the APC government has promised to provide.

    “I want to call on our people to come out en-mass and vote for Mallam Nasir El-rufai of the APC as the governor of the state, by that we will have a bargaining power at the end, let us not be deceived with empty promises that may not see the reality of the day,” he stressed.

  • PDP in Jigawa expels deputy governor

    PDP in Jigawa expels deputy governor

    The deputy governor of Jigawa state, Alhaji Ahmad Mahmud has been expelled from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) for alleged anti-party activities.

    A statement signed by Alhaji Ibrahim Kafinta, PDP chairman of Galagamma ward in Gumel, Jigawa, revealed that the decision to expel Mahmud was taken during a stakeholders meeting held in his ward.

    According to the statement made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Dutse, the chairman alleged that the deputy governor had sabotaged PDP during the recent National Assembly election.

    He said that the Gumel Local Government headquarters of the party, had endorsed the expulsion.

    Efforts by NAN to get the comments of the deputy governor on the matter, was futile as he neither picked a call nor replied a text message sent to him.