APC supporters in Bauchi defect to PDP, burn brooms

No fewer than 10,000 supporters of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and other political parties in Bauchi defected to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Tuesday, February 5, thus giving the opposition party a massive boost.

The defectors were led by the state’s former deputy governor, Sagir Aminu Saleh, and they made the move during the PDP’s presidential campaign flag off at the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa Memorial Stadium, Tribune reports.

The decampees, while announcing their defection, stated that while in the ruling party, they didn’t gain anything; rather, they lost precious time and resources. They publicly burnt heaps of brooms – the symbol the APC.

The defectors were received into the PDP by Governor Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo of Gombe, who is also the party’s zonal presidential campaign coordinator.

The governor assured them of vital roles in the party in its determination to win the forthcoming elections.

Also speaking during the occasion, the director general of the PDP’s gubernatorial campaign in the state, Senator Abdul Ahmed Ningi, assured the defectors that they would be carried along in the scheme of things; stating that they are important to the PDP at this moment of campaigns.

The PDP’s chairman in Bauchi, Hamza Koshe Akuyam, expressed optimism that all elections in the state would be won by the party. He opined that the state’s electorate had gotten disenchanted by the APC’s poor performance in the state.