High-profile defections ahead of Election causing panic in PDP

Just weeks to the 2015 presidential election, the political atmosphere is charged again as high-profile political figures across the country have been moving from one political party to another.

The defection is not limited to the ruling PDP and the leading opposition APC but they are the major losers and gainers, respectively. Last Monday, the APC presidential candidate Muhammadu Buhari received Niger State deputy governor, Alhaji Ahmed Musa Ibeto, alongside members of national and state assemblies, and aides to Governor Babangida Aliyu who left the PDP for the APC.

The deputy governor had said he defected to APC alongside 200 others, most of whom were serving aides of Governor Aliyu because of PDP’s shoddy handling of their petition on the gubernatorial primary election in the state.

Already, the Niger State deputy governor, Mr Ibeto, said on Wednesday that


he had assumed leadership of his new party, being the highest political office holder in the state. 

He spoke during the inauguration of the state’s APC gubernatorial candidate, Mr Abubakar Sani Bello’s campaign committee in Minna.

Reacting to the defection last Wednesday, Governor Aliyu denied reports that he begged the former military president, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, to convince his deputy and others who recently defected to the APC, to return to the PDP.

Also, penultimate Saturday, prominent PDP chieftains in Plateau State also defected to the APC when the APC and Buhari visited the state for campaign.

The defectors, who were led by a former Minister of Science and Technology, Pauline Tallen, were officially received into the APC during the mass rally held at the Rwang Pam Township Stadium, Jos.

Former Minister Tallen, who was also a former Plateau State deputy governor and governorship candidate in the state in 2011, was received together with other PDP chieftains that included Mr Sambo Wampuk, a former director general of the ITF and a former House of Reps member, Leonard Dilkon.

Also last week, about 435 PDP members in Makarfi LGA of Kaduna State left the party for the APC during a campaign rally for the APC’s governorship candidate, Malam Nasir el-Rufa’i, in Makarfi, the hometown of a former governor, Alhaji Ahmed Mohammed Makarfi.

El-Rufai’s campaign spokesman Samuel Aruwan cited poor internal party politics in the PDP as one of the reasons given by the defectors, adding that they also promised to work for the success of the APC.

A former DG of NEMA, Alhaji Salihu Makarfi, and a former information commissioner, Saidu Adamu, who had earlier defected to the APC from the PDP also took part in the rally.

President Jonathan was said to have suspended his Akure rally about two weeks ago, following the defection of some aggrieved PDP leaders to the APC in Ondo State.

Among those who defected were Mr Femi Agagu, a former Chief of Staff to late Governor Segun Agagu, two former Speakers of the Ondo State House of Assembly, five former Commissioners in the state, eight former LGA chairmen as well as scores of ex-Councillors.

On Wednesday, January 14, 2015, the ranks of the PDP in the House of Reps further depleted as eight more members defected from the party. Four of the defectors joined the rival APC. 

The same day, the PDP lost nine senators to the APC and other political parties because of the outcome of last month’s primary elections across the country, thereby depleting the membership strength of the party in the Senate.

Consequently, President Jonathan was said to have met with the PDP leaders last Sunday behind closed doors at his Campaign Office, Legacy House, Maitama, Abuja, to address the gale of defections. But will his intervention help save the situation before the elections? Hopefully!

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