BEVERLY HILLS, CA, July 13, (THEWILL) -Aggrieved members of the Borno State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) have been warned against defecting to the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The State Chairman of APC, Hon. Ali Bukar Dalori, who handed down the warning, said any member of the party who defects to PDP would be taking a dangerous gamble as they may live to regret the action.
He urged APC members in the state not to allow anyone to deceive them into defection, saying such an action may turn out to be the greatest undoing and “worst political miscalculation” as there will be very limited options in the opposition party.
In a statement issued on Sunday against the backdrop of growing rumour that some APC loyalists close to the former governor of the state have concluded plans to move to PDP as a fallout of being edged ought after the party’s national congress, Dalori noted that it has become public knowledge that some aspirants have been putting pressures on a key leader of the APC, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, to defect to PDP thinking they (the aspirants) would be given automatic tickets to contest under the platform of PDP in the 2015 elections.
Reminding the aggrieved APC members, that the PDP in Borno State has many aspirants that have served the party for years , he maintained that “there is just no way any political party would hand over tickets of governorship, two senatorial seats, five or more House of Representatives ticket and five or more Assembly seats to a group of new comers whereas the new comers are not coming with a sitting governor.”
Dalori warned that “the PDP would only make a promise to get more people but such promise will never be fulfilled because the old PDP members will certainly resist.”
Referring to the instances in Sokoto and Kano where Bafarawa and Shekarau had to even move out of the APC when party leadership was handed over to Governors Aliyu Magatakarda Wammako and Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, Dalori said: “Shekarau is now a Minister but I can assure you that he is not likely to have his godson as the governorship candidate of the PDP.”
He however maintained that “ I won’t be surprised if that his godson he fielded in 2011 as governorship candidate in Kano under the ANPP returns to APC before 2015 when he doesn’t get anything, the same thing for many of his followers because as it stands, he took people to PDP and he alone has benefited from the defection, and that is always the case when aspirants just follow a big fish to another party, as they become mere escorts.”
According to Dalori, “If Shekarau is lucky, he might produce the deputy governorship candidate and he might be given a Senate seat but that will be all and even his Senate bid will be resisted by those who might have ambitions. Also take the case of Sokoto State. Bafarawa can hardly have his political godson as the governorship candidate. He might also get the Senate and that is all. All those that followed him may have to forget achieving their aspirations in 2015 because they met people there who built and nurtured the party.”
He also said: “Politicians are very funny people, sometimes political rivalry exists for life. For instance when His Excellency Senator Ali Sheriff was Governor under the ANPP, he did so much to destroy the PDP, he ended the aspirations of many people, some of them lost everything they had in life after selling off their assets to fund their elections and they got defeated or schemed out. Do you think all these people will fold their arms and watch him come back and take the PDP to achieve something when they know he is in PDP mainly because he is aggrieved in APC?
“At best, when the headquarters of the PDP puts pressures, he can get the governorship seat for his godson and his Senatorial ticket and if he gets these two slots, every other person will be told to forget his aspiration, they will be promised Minister, Board membership of federal establishments etc and most of these pledges will not be redeemed. Most importantly also, the old PDP members are even likely to fight whoever Sheriff anoints as the governorship candidate if that happens because the old people know very well that if God forbids, the godson is elected governor, he will only pay attention to Sheriff and those around him while the old PDP members will be strangers in their own party that they suffered so much to build and sustain.”
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