As the presidential campaign train of the All Progressives Congress (APC) stormed Minna, the Niger State capital on Monday, the State Deputy Governor, Ahmed Musa Ibeto, has announced that he is leaving the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the APC.
Ibeto left with over 200 current and past office holders from the state including serving members of the National Assembly, members of State’s House of Assembly, former commissioners and former local governments chairmen.
Ibeto had not been happy with the State Governor, Babangida Aliyu, since the PDP primaries in the state.
The Deputy Governor was one of the aspirants for the governorship ticket of the PDP, but he was not supported by the Governor.
Rather, the governor supported Ahmed Nasko for the ticket.
Nasko was handed the party’s flag during the flag-off of presidential campaigns by President Goodluck Jonathan in Lagos recently.
Ibeto, who attended the campaign rally of the APC presidential candidate of the APC, Muhammadu Buhari, confirmed that he was leaving the PDP because of the injustice that reigns in the party, adding that the recently held primaries of the PDP in the state was stage-managed.
“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,” Ibeto said.
“It is true we are defecting to APC because the primaries conducted were not in accordance with the PDP constitution.
“Myself and other aggrieved party members decided to petition the National Headquaters of the party on the outcome of the governorship primaries with a view to addressing the obvious injustice but met a brickwall.”
He said the concerned folks expected justice from the party’s national office but they were also disappointed, hence the decision to join the APC.
Each of the decampees said they left the PDP with their loyalists and supporters.
The recent defection is coming barely 24 hours after top PDP chiefs met in Abuja to restrategise and win more Nigerians for President Goodluck Jonathan ahead of the elections after raising concerns over the gale of defections from the party.
The new strategies include reduction in the pump price of premium motor spirit or petrol from N97 per litre to N87 and the planned reduction of the price of kerosene from between N120 and N150 to N50 per litre.
