Saraki, Tambuwal, Fatai, Others To Dump APC For PDP

The mood at Wadata, the edifice housing the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), yesterday, was that of excitement owing to what a source described as the imminent defection of prominent politicians “very soon,” including Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki and Governors Aminu Tambuwal, Samuel Ortom and Abdulfatai Ahmed of Sokoto, Benue and Kwara States, respectively, among others.
In a chat with newsmen in Abuja, yesterday, the source credited the PDP Contact and Integration Committee and the Reconciliation Committee led respectively by former Cross River State Governor, Senator Liyel Imoke and Bayelsa State Governor, Hon Seriake Dickson for a job well done, noting that leaders across the various political parties were unanimous that the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led administration should be voted out of power in 2019.
Asked if the party regards the imminent return of the aforementioned as sufficient compensation for its loss of Ekiti to the APC; the source said, doing so would amount to acceptance of fraud as a way of life, adding that the PDP has already taken a decision to reject the governorship election results which saw the declaration of Dr. Kayode Fayemi of the APC as winner.
He also called on Nigerians to expect more defections into the fold of the party in the months leading to the general election, arguing that the past three years of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration has left the country more divided that it has ever been “since the attainment of independence in 1960.”
He said: “By now, Nigerians are aware that Senator Saraki and some governors are perfecting plans to return home. Mind you, I didn’t say returning to a party because I believe and they know that the PDP is their home. They belong here and this is where they can be what they want to be, politically.
“It is not just these governors but more governors and members of the National Assembly, both from the Senate and the House of Representatives and state Houses of Assembly. This is good news for Nigerians who have watched their country drift toward anarchy and despondency in the last three years.
“The Ekiti episode is being addressed but I don’t want to think that we need lose one to win two or three as the case may be. What happened was robbery as attested to by local and international observers. But in the meantime, we are making inroads into the polity that will position the party on a solid footing to win the Presidential elections in 2019.”
It would be recalled that, last Wednesday, PDP National Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus alongside River State Governor, Chief Nyesom Wike, Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal and Presidential hopeful, Sule Lamido, met with Saraki and Kwara State Governor, Ahmed AbdulFatai in Ilorin as part of efforts to woo the Reformed All Progressives Congress (R-APC) members back to PDP formally.
Meanwhile, Secondus, Lamido, Baraje and others have held secret talks on the way forward.
The Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki; the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Prince Uche Secondus; and a presidential aspirant of the PDP, Alhaji Sule Lamido, last Wednesday night, held a private meeting in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital.
The Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki, had on Tuesday said it was premature for him to declare whether or not he would contest for president in the 2019 general election.
Saraki, while on his first visit to Kwara State since his Code of Conduct Tribunal victory at the Supreme Court, had also said it was not time for him to declare whether he would defect to the PDP or any other political party from the APC.
Other notable politicians who attended the meeting behind closed doors included the Governor of Kwara State, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed; his Benue State counterpart, Samuel Ortom; a former PDP Chairman, Alhaji Kawu Baraje, who also led the new PDP bloc of the All Progressives Congress; and the PDP National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, among others.
Also present at the meeting were the Governor of Sokoto State, Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal; Senator Lawal Shuaibu and Senator Barnabas Gemade.
According to sources at the meeting, though some of the politicians had joined the eighth Fidau prayer for Baraje’s late mother, Aishat, they later converged at Saraki’s house, where they were joined by other politicians, including Lamido, Secondus and others who reportedly could not attend the Fidau.
The sources said they strategised on the 2019 election politicking. There were also unconfirmed reports that the politicians discussed strategies for the speculated defection of Baraje, Ahmed, Saraki and his loyalists from the APC to the PDP.
Ologbondiyan, who confirmed the meeting, claimed that though it was a brotherhood meeting, they also discussed political issues.
According to him, they discussed how to move Nigeria forward.
He said, “It was a brotherhood meeting. Our leaders met and they shared thoughts on the future of Nigeria and how to improve the living condition of Nigerians and how to make Nigeria a better place for all to live in.”