Francis Sardauna in Katsina
The All Progressives Congress (APC) and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Katsina State hurled brickbats at each other over the defection of 1,900 members from the latter to the former in Danmusa local government area of the state.
Danmusa is the local government of the immediate past Secretary to the State Government, Dr. Mustapha Muhammad Inuwa, who recently defected to the PDP alongside with his 627 political support groups.
However, a statement by the Director, Media and Publicity campaign council of the APC, Ahmed Abdulkadir, stated that 1,900 Inuwa’s supporters crossed-carpets from mainly the PDP and other parties into the APC.
He stressed that the defectors, led by one of the prominent local government chairmen in Danmusa, Sani Abu Minista, were received by the state APC gubernatorial candidate, Dr. Dikko Umar Radda during a campaign rally in the area.
According to him, Minista led the complete structure of the PDP from each of the 11 wards of the local government area into the folds of the APC and donated an office complex for the APC activities.
But the media and publicity committee chairman of the Atiku/Lado 2023, Alhaji Kabir Yusuf Yar’Adua, described the 1,907 defectors as a rented crowd from other local governments that were paraded by the APC in Danmusa as defectors.
Yar’Adua, in a statement yesterday, also accused the ruling party of buying permanent voters cards (PVCs) from, “innocent electorates aimed at reducing the much anticipated victory of the PDP in the upcoming 2023 general elections.”
He said: “Only recently the Independent National Electoral Commission in Katsina released a figure of 142,261 authentic registered voters in 10 local government security prone areas (Danmusa local government inclusive).
“How therefore APC gets its 1,900 decampees out of that figure? This is apart from those voters who were displaced by banditry and those who migrated and relocated to other places.
“It therefore beats our imagination for the Director of APC campaign council to make such callous, unsubstantiated and biased judgement by reportedly conscripting such figures and arriving at the wrong conclusion.
“We are advising the APC in this respect to allow the electorate to make unbiased and correct judgement of their choice between APC and PDP and in relation to their performance from the top to the bottom in the last seven and a half years in the office.
“The PDP campaign council is calling all well-meaning Nigerians to remain vigilant and alert in our resolve to vote out APC in the 2023 general elections.”
Yar’Adua admonished the APC media in Katsina to always cross check their facts and substantiate its figures before arriving at any conclusion.
