With the Apex Court set to pronounce judgement in the Taraba governorship tussle any time now, many top ranking members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) are said to have concluded plans to ditch the party. A check at the party secretariat showed that the traffic of party faithful has slowed down, even as bustling activities is witnessed at the People Democratic Party (PDP) headquarters in Jalingo.
A source at APC however denied that defections were underway. The source said even if the APC loses at the Supreme Court, it still in control of the federal government. The source pleading anonymity said, “Why should anyone defect to a sinking party? If they like let them win the state. We have the federal. So there is balance. We control the center and there are more opportunities there. We are ready to dash them the state. We have bigger prospects at Abuja. But see them all here. Do they even have enough appointments to share? I can assure you no one is defecting. Let them take the state. I repeat we have better things in Abuja.”
Making reference to the development a pro-PDP pressure group in the state, the Taraba Mandate Group (TMG) in a press statement welcomed the defectors, stressing that the electorate is hopeful. The statement signed by TMG’s Public Relations Officer (PRO), Gani Bako noted that there was no APC presence in the state in the first place. “Actually many of them are not defectors. They are mere returnees. There is no APC in Taraba in the real sense. Even their governorship candidate, Aisha Alhassan, was a staunch PDP member. It was under PDP she won and became a Senator. The Director General of their campaign, Alhaji Abdulmumunin Vaki, was the chairman of the PDP in the Suntai government. So when did APC enter Taraba to have any roots? Or even to claim it can produce the governor? What you call APC is just a rag tag army of disgruntled dissenters who left our ranks out of anger or frustration to join the association of retired politicians. No wonder they didn’t go anywhere. But we welcome the defectors all the same and assure them they would get a place under the umbrella.”
TMG further maintained that the APC won only five out of the sixteen local governments areas in the governorship tussle. “It remains to be seen how a party that managed to eek a meagre and inconsequential win in five local governments is really hopeful to steal the state. By the way, the boast that it could steal the mandate of Governor Darius Ishaku is hinged on the proverbial federal might. We are however hopeful that our state shall be treated like other states with similar issues. Our hope is thus anchored on the Judiciary and its determination to hover above partisan frays.”
