By Laleye Dipo
The All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) has stated that neither it nor its candidate had any agreement with the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) before last Saturday’s Magama/Rijau House of Representative bye-election.
The party also said its candidate, Alhaji Shehu Salle, is also not in agreement with anybody or political party to defect after his swearing-in.
APGA won the election when its candidate, Salleh, defeated the candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Emmanuel Alamu Endoza, and that of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Alhaji Halilu Yussuf.
It was the first major election to be won by APGA in the state.
The state Chairman of the party, Alhaji Musa Aliyu Liman, told newsmen in Minna on Tuesday that the victory of the party is as a result of hard work and serious campaign by all the stakeholders.
“The issues that made Salle to leave the APC for APGA are still there and nothing has changed. Salle has no plan to defect to the APC, he never said so to anybody. What made him to leave APC is still there.
” The victory of our party is a big victory for us. It has further entrenched us as the third largest party in Niger State and Nigeria as a whole.
“APC did not aid our victory, instead two serving commissioners in the APC government were seen on election day mobilising voters for the PDP,” Liman said.
He however expressed disappointment with the national leadership of the party for “abandoning” the state branch of the party since the 2019 general election.
“We did not get any support from the national secretariat. We did not get any support from any of our national leaders but we thank God that we won the election,” he said.
Liman said last Saturday’s victory is a pointer to what APGA can do in the next general election, pointing out that: “We are now focused on the governorship of the state.”
Meanwhile, the PDP campaign council for the election has said that it is still studying the result of the election.
The Chairperson of the Campaign Council, Senator Zaynab Kure, posted on one of the party’s WhatsApp page that she is also still in shock at the outcome of the poll.
Kure posted: “I am yet to find words to describe the situation we have found ourselves. We certainly won but God knows why, we were declared otherwise.
“We are assessing the situation and will get back to our family members through the party in due course.”
