Date: 2015-04-08

p>With the governorship and states house of assembly elections  scheduled to hold this weekend,  the embattled Peoples  Democratic Party (PDP) has continued to deplete in number as members defect en masse to the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Edo, Jigawa, Kwara and Gombe States

Deputy Governor of Jigawa State, Alhaji Ahmed Mahmoud, who was expelled from the PDP during an emergency meeting of the party in the state for anti-party activities, yesterday defected to the APC.

His defection with his supporters came at a time when the governorship candidate of the PDP in the 2012 governorship election in Edo State and the national coordinator of the Goodluck Support Group and Goodluck Youth Initiative, Maj-Gen. Charles Arhiavbere (rtd) become the first person in Edo State to jump out of the ship of the PDP with over 10,000 of his supporters to join the APC.

Ahmed Mahmud, a two-term deputy governor who was accused to have voted for the opposition APC in the March 28 presidential election received his APC membership card in Gumel on Monday.

Confirming his move to APC, the Director of Press to the Deputy Governor, Ahmed Haruna Gumel told reporters on phone that his boss was leaving PDP for the APC and will be received in his Galagamma Ward in Gumel local government area of the state, but did not however state the reason why the deputy governor was defecting to the APC.

On his part, General Arhiavbere who joined the APC 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 backward, 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 the Comrade Governor of Edo State.” He continued: “the party at the centre is  APC 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.”

In his remarks, 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.

In Kwara State,  no fewer than 13 political parties and their governorship candidates in the state yesterday adopted the APC governorship candidate and the incumbent Governor AbdulFatah Ahmed as their candidate in the April 11 poll.

The parties, under the auspices of conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP) said that they decided to back Ahmed so as to be in the nation’s mainstream politics.

This happened as more leaders of the PDP in Kwara State defected to the APC ahead of this weekend’s elections.

Some of the parties involved are Action Alliance, Progressive Peoples Alliance, United Progressives Party, United Democratic Party, Social Democratic Party, Citizen Popular Party, African Peoples Alliance, African Congress of Democrats and All Progressives Grand Alliance.

Also, some of the governorship candidates that stepped down for Ahmed are: Mrs. Felicia Oyewusi (AA), Alhaji Tiamiyu Kamoru (PPA), Comfort Kayode (UPP) and Hon. Lekan Alabi (SDP).

Others are Mr. Bayo David (UDP), Hon. Bamidele Omotosho (CPP) and Mrs. Falilatu Bashiru, deputy governorship candidate of SDP.

Speaking at a press conference in Ilorin on Monday, the chairman of the CNPP in the state, Alhaji Adebayo Lawal, said the decision to adopt Governor Ahmed was borne out of genuine concern for the progress and development of the state.

According to him, “We in the CNPP of Kwara State identified the need to be in the mainstream of the nation’s politics by ensuring that our governor, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed also emerges on the platform of APC to enable us recoup all the losses we have sustained under the punitive policies of the administration of the outgoing President in the last two years.”

Meanwhile, the Majority Leader in the Gombe State House of Assembly, Hon. Mamman Alkali was among the hundreds of politicians from the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who yesterday defected to the APC.

Leading the decampees, who included over 50 personal assistants and special assistants to Governor Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo and many contractors to the State Secretariat of the APC was the leader of the APC in the state, Alhaji Ibrahim Zamfara, received them.

A member of the PDP Elders’ Committee in the state said their decision to dump the PDP for the APC was because they felt Gombe State should not be an opposition to the federal government following the victory of Muhammadu Buhari in the last presidential election.

He said they have decided to embrace change because of the illegalities happening in the PDP, which lack transparency and the discriminatory attributes of the ruling PDP in Gombe State.

He said they felt it would be better for them to pitch their tent with the wining train so that the State could benefit and move forward.

Other notable decampees from the PDP, who also defected were two serving members of the state House of Assembly and two former members.

While receiving the defectors, the APC gubernatorial candidate in the state, Alhaji Inuwa Yahaya, asked them to feel free and consider themselves as bonafide members of the party.

He said they are going to be treated fairly and without any form of discrimination, adding that it is better that they have joined the APC train now, which would further enhance the acceptance of the APC ahead of next Saturday’s governorship and state Houses of Assembly elections.