Shekarau: Why I Left PDP

Shekarau: Why I Left PDP

Ibrahim Shuaibu in Kano

Former Governor of Kano State, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau saturday said the arbitrary dissolution of the State Executive Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) compelled him to return to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Shekarau, a former Minister of Education, gave this reason while addressing his supporters, who converged at his residence at Mundubawa quarters in Kano metropolis.
He said that his decision to leave PDP was necessitated by the failure of the national leadership of the party to resolve the lingering crisis which bedevilled the party after the illegal dissolution of the state executive committee.

He alleged that the national leadership had violated the party’s constitution by dissolving the state executive committee without giving any cogent reason.

Due to what he described as injustice by the PDP and after series of meetings with stakeholders, Shekarau noted that hedecided to dump the PDP without any formal conditions attached.

He said: “Weighing the available three options, that is either to remain where we are, retire from politics or defect to another party. So finally I Ibrahim Shekarau, Sardaunan Kano and my followers have resolved to defect to the APC from today, Saturday, September 8, 2018.”

He noted that the dissolution of the Kano State Executive Committee of the PDP and subsequent setting up of a seven-member caretaker committee was against the constitution of the PDP.

“We have tried our best to ensure amicable resolution of the lingering crisis between our side and Kwankwaso side on the sharing of party positions at the state, local government and ward levels but it failed.”

Shekarau said he had no option than to leave PDP because of the inability of its national leadership to respect the earlier court order restraining it from taking the action it took.

He promised to ensure that Kano and Nigeria continue to benefit from his wealth of experience in the APC, adding that his defection to APC was not based on selfish interest, but to promote democratic norms.

Shekarau said the PDP leaders decided “to have an agreement with the leadership of the Reformed APC. They set up a technical committee of five from among the committee of the PDP. The Reformed APC also set up a committee of five which included Dr. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso.

“At that level, the R-APC had tendered to the committee some demands. The demands they made included sharing some percentage of the party leadership in the respective states of the defectors and granting automatic tickets to all legislatures, both national and state that will be decamping to PDP.”

Under normal circumstance, Shekarau said the technical committee was supposed to report back to the committee on integration and contacts, which would in turn report back to the PDP National Working Committee and National Executive Committee that had the constitutional powers to take final decision.

Unfortunately, he said: “All the procedures were violated. They were not observed. They were not respected. The technical committee under former Cross Rivers Governor, Mr. Liyel Imoke, five of them, reported directly to the National Chairman, Mr. Uche Secondus. Some agreement signed between them and members of the R-APC.

“In the agreements, former Kano State Governor, Sen. Rabiu Kwankwaso was granted some privileges including 51 percent of the structure of the leadership of the party at all levels in the state while the existing members should take 49 percent. They also gave automatic tickets to all national and state legislators who defected to the PDP with Kwankwaso.”

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