By Segun Awofadeji in Bauchi
The younger brother of Gombe State governor, Babangida Mohammad Dankwambo, popularly known as BMD, has defected to the All Progressive Congress from the Peoples Democratic Party.
His elder brother, Gombe State Governor Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo, is a presidential aspirant on the PDP platform.
Dankwambo’s yourger brother dumped PDP despite efforts by the governor to prevail on him to remain in the party.
THISDAY checks revealed that he was under pressure from different quarters to reverse his decision and was even given juicy offers which he rejected.
A government source told newsmen Saturday that effort to stop BMD from moving to APC was not because of his political relevance but because it will be embarrassing for the biological brother of a sitting governor and presidential aspirant to defect to an opposition party.
The source said that this would show that “something is obviously wrong, it shows that the governor is not capable of managing situations around him.”
“We felt we could manage the situation but unfortunately it was above our ability,” the source added.
The source who refused to give details of what transpired, simply said, “the governor takes the highest proportion of the blame in the whole issue.”
The PDP presidential aspirant’s younger brother was issued the membership card of the opposition party in the state by the chairman of his Ajiya ward in Gombe North constituency after he registered.
Our correspondent learnt that hundreds of his supporters would join him in APC at his formal presentation to the state leadership of the party in a grand reception to be held in Gombe, the state capital.
In a telephone interview, the governor’s younger brother, said he decided to join APC because, “Some people in the PDP have decided not to be fair to me and since PDP cannot accommodate me I decided to move to the APC to pursue my political ambition.”
Similarly, the presidential campaign coordinator of Sen. Ahmed Makarfi and a political heavyweight in Gombe, Auwal Abdullahi, has also defected to APC.
The defection of Abdullahi at his Kumo West ward in Akko Local Government Area of the state ended months of speculations about the status of his political allegiance.
It was reliably gathered that since the news of the planned defection of Abdullahi from the party was reported in the media last Wednesday, there had been intense pressure on him from Governor Dankwambo not to leave the PDP.
Reliable sources said Dankwambo and the speaker of the state Assembly, Hon. Nasiru Abubakar Nono, personally met with Abdullahi, who is the Gafakan Akko, to prevail on him to remain in PDP but their efforts were unsuccessful as he finally defected.
The young politician, who defected with hundreds of his supporters, was received by a large crowd of APC supporters led by the Chairman of Gombe Central of the party, Adamu Pata, Chairman Akko LGA, Waziri Jabbo, and some stakeholders of the party.
Abdullahi who pointed out that he was happy to join the APC with his supporters, stressed that he felt fulfilled.
He said he joined the opposition party in the state because he had a mission to render service to the people on its platform.
“Today, my supporters and I are not just joining the APC for joining sake, we are joining because we are on a mission of saving the state from bad leadership.”
The zonal leader and others who spoke said the coming of Abdullahi, who is the proprietor of one of the leading Islamic schools in the state capital, Aqsat Schools, marks the death of PDP in Akko LGA and Gombe Central.
“We are happy to receive such a political general in APC, we are happy to capture this big fish, along with thousands of his supporters. Gafaka is an asset and he will no doubt add value to our party,” he said.
