Erstwhile governor of Borno State, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, has defected to the PDP from the All Progressives Congress and is set to storm Maiduguri, the state capital today for a briefing with his supporters.
The defection of Sheriff, former chairman of the Board of Trustees of the defunct All Nigerian Peoples Party, ANPP, one of the parties that merged to form the APC was confirmed to our correspondent last night by one of his strong associate, Inuwa Bwala.
Bwala, who served in the cabinet of the incumbent governor, Kassim Shettima before he exited upon the differences between the governor and Sheriff, said “He has defected and he is now in the PDP.”
Sheriff is expected in Maiduguri today for further consultations with his supporters. Ahead of the visit, the chairman of the state chapter of the APC, Ali Bukar Dalori, on Sunday cautioned party members in the state not to be deceived into defecting from the party.
Dalori said that those who leave the party would end up losing on both sides as they would have nothing to gain in the PDP.
Dalori in a statement said a number of aspirants for elective offices in the state and in Abuja have been putting pressure on Sheriff to defect from the party, believing that they would get easy ticket in the PDP.
Citing Sokoto and Kano states, where former governors of the state defected to the PDP, leaving their supporters in the cold, Dalori said that “Shekarau is now a Minister but I can assure you that he is not likely to have his godson as the Governorship candidate of the PDP.
“I won’t be surprised if that his godson he fielded in 2011 as Governorship candidate in Kano under the ANPP, returns to APC before 2015 when he doesn’t get any thing. The same thing goes for many of his followers because, as it stands, he took people to PDP and he alone has benefited from the defection. That is always the case when aspirants just follow a big fish to another party, they become mere escorts.
“Most importantly also, the old PDP members are even likely to fight whoever Sheriff anoints as the governorship candidate if that happens because the old people know very well that if God forbids, the godson is elected governor, he will only pay attention to Sheriff and those around him, while the old PDP members will be strangers in their own party that they suffered so much to build and sustain.”
“No political party will hand over the entire aspirations of its loyal members to a new comer unless the party is looking for massive anti party activities. We will prefer to have a united APC in Borno but to be honest with you the APC in Borno State is not under any threat at all, we have the masses, we are very, very strong and are only waiting for inauguration of our candidates in May and June, 2015 that is for the governorship, deputy and for the National and State Assembly seats.”
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