5,000 Kwankwaso Supporters Defect to PDP in Nasarawa

Emmanuel Ukumba in Lafia

More than 5,000 members of Kwankwasiyya group, a political movement of former Kano State Governor, Sen. Rabiu Kwankwaso has formally moved defected to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Nasarawa State.

The movement, which fused into the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2014, merged with the PDP at a grand ceremony held at the party secretariat of Nasarawa PDP, Lafia, the state capital saturday.

After the Chairman of Nasarawa PDP, Hon. Francis Orogu received over 5,000 of its members into the PDP, Kwankwaso said the movement formally moved to the PDP enable its teeming members register with the opposition party in the state.

Kwankwaso, who was presented by Mallam Aminu Dabo, said: “We have decamped from the APC to the PDP long ago. So, this is coming together formally of our members so that everyone will go to his ward and register with the PDP.
“Each of us that came is a representative of over 5,000 members of Kwankwasiyya across Nasarawa State. We are doing this in preparation for the 2019 general election,” he said.

Also at the reception, Orogu assured the Kwankwasiyya group of a leveled playing field as it merged with the PDP, noting that all members and supporters “are working together to rescue Nigeria. That is our goal. And we will get there.”

Apart from the members of Kwankwasiyya received to the party saturday, Orogu also played host to Sen. Solomon Ewuga, who had declared his intention to contest the state’s governorship election on the platform of the PDP in 2019.

The chairman alleged that the state governor, Mr. Tanko Al-Makura government in the state had received over N390 billion as federal allocations in the last seven years with no commiserate development projects to show for it.
He, consequently, alleged that the amount received from the Federation Account by the Al-Makura administration since 2011 to date was exclusive of other intervention funds from the federal government.

He lamented that the state “has so far been indebted to the tune of over N70 billion within the period under review despite the sales of public assets by the state government.

“It may interest you to know that just within seven years, the APC government has thrown the state into a debt profile of over N70 billion,” the chairman said.