Noah Ebije and Sola Ojo, Kaduna
Few days to the governorship election, one of the governorship aspirants of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Kaduna State, Mohammed Sani Sidi, has dumped the party for the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Sidi, a former Director General of National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) ditched PDP with his numerous supporters, political associates and several other chieftains of the party across the 23 local government areas of the state.
In a statement by his personal assistant, Alhaji Ahmed Maiyaki, Sidi, said: “Since the party’s primaries held last year, which was characterised by manipulations, impunity, lack of internal democracy and intimidations of party delegates, the party’s leadership at the state and the governorship candidate has failed to genuinely engage all aspirants towards genuine reconciliation, an important task that would have helped the party forge ahead.
“Even more worrisome is the mutual mistrust that exists between the party leadership, the gubernatorial candidate and some of party members, and, above all, the failure to showcase any meaningful blueprint and capacity on how to govern the state when voted into power.”
The defector also submitted his membership card of the party to the ward leadership of the PDP.
Other prominent politicians and associates of Sidi who resigned their membership of the party are Peter Adamu Adada, former deputy speaker of Kaduna State House of Assembly, Rabiu Bako, former chairman, Kaduna Council and Commissioner of Information, Kabiru Ballah, former PDP secretary, Sani Shahada, Nasiru Aliyu Damau and former chairman of Kubau local government, among several others.
Meanwhile, Kaduna State youth leader of the ruling APC, Mallam Aminu Lawal Na’anti, has said women and youths in the party are eager and ready to return Governor El-Rufai to power.
While describing the re-election of El-Rufai as a done deal, the youth leader said: ‘Regardless of the seeming non existence of other political parties in the state, we should not go to bed and snore away the night. We will not relent in our efforts till we win the election, by the special grace of God.
“I can tell you that the youths in Kaduna State are fully prepared to return Mallam Nasir El-Rufai to office in Saturday’s governorship election.”
In another development, the Northern Youth Forum, yesterday, urged the presidential candidate of the PDP, Atiku Abubakar, to accept the result of the last presidential election that returned President Muhammadu Buhari into office.
The forum, while also congratulating Buhari over his emergence as the winner of the election, urged him to put God and masses at heart as he leads the affairs of the country for another four years.
The National Director, Public Affairs of the forum, Bello Abdulhamid, in a statement, urged the PDP candidate to put the past behind him and embrace the spirit of sportsmanship.
“We are calling on the president to use this second golden opportunity to tackle some of the challenges that he has seen in his first term, especially in the northern part of the country, where the people have suffered from insurgency and other forms of insecurity.
“The people of the North have shown faith in your administration, by coming out en-mass to vote for you; we are employing you to keep that faith.
“We also wish to use this spirit to call on the presidential candidate of the PDP and former vice president, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, to accept the result of the election in good faith. He fought a good fight, but, not all participants like in any competition will come out victorious. There must be winners and those who will not win.
“AYF believes that as a true democrat, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar should join hands with president Buhari to move Nigeria forward, which is what he would have done if elected to lead the country.”