Deputy chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP), Barrister Tanko Beji, has claimed that crisis of irreconcilable difference and scramble for funds among top officials of the Niger All Progressive Congress (APC) had forced some to conclude on decamping to the PDP.
The PDP deputy chairman in a press statement yesterday in Minna said already some of the APC chieftains in the state are discussing with the ruling party, adding that the move was aimed at saving what was left of their political future.
He said most members of the APC had no genuine interest in making the party have any meaningful electoral value, adding that there was no hope the party would win next Saturday senatorial bye-election or any elective position in the 2015 general elections.
However, the Niger state publicity secretary of APC, Mr. Jonathan Vatsa, has described the PDP claims as “total falsehood,” insisting that the party was still intact in the state.
Vatsa called on the PDP deputy chairman to be bold in naming those he claimed to be defecting to his party from APC, saying that the ruling party had become jittering over the acceptance of the opposition in the state and in Niger-east in particular.
He invited the PDP leadership in the state to come and witness the rally of APC in the state today Thursday to see how united the opposition is in Niger state, adding that the ruling party should better stark packing its bags from the seat of power.
But Barrister Beji insisted that those who had made contacts to defect were expressing dismay over the political approach of their party members, adding that “most of them are self serving and have lost any iota of political relevance to give the party political goodwill in the state.”
“We have been contacted by some chieftains of the Niger state APC of plans to decamp to PDP and we are already making arrangements to welcome them to the fold. We are indeed happy that some people in the Niger APC have scruples and are ready to leave a party formed by people nursing political vendetta, a party without structure or developmental roadmap for the state. We wait for them with open hands.”
