About 200 aggrieved members of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in Niger State led by Ahmed Ibeto, Deputy Governor of the state have dumped the party for the All Progressives Congress, APC.
Ibeto and his followers, including some serving members of National and State Houses of Assembly announced their defection to the main opposition party on Monday when Muhammad Buhari, APC’s presidential flag bearer took his campaign rally to Minna, the state capital.
The defecting members cited injustice meted out to them during the state party primaries as reasons they left the party.
In a statement on Monday, the deputy governor said the whole exercise was simply skewed in favour of preferred candidates of the party leaders with vested interest.
“The electoral process that threw up Alhaji Umar Nasko as PDP governorship candidate was not in accordance with the PDP electoral law and the constitution.
“It is true we are defecting to APC because the primaries conducted were not in accordance with the PDP constitution. Myself and other aggrieved party members decided to petition the National Headquarters of the party on the outcome of the governorship primaries with a view to addressing the obvious injustice but met a brick wall.
“We were expecting justice from the party’s national office but nothing was forthcoming, hence we decided to join the APC,” Ibeto stated.
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