200, 000 Supporters of Atiku Declare Support for Buhari in North-west

• 300 APC aspirants in Kano dumps party

Ibrahim Shuaibu in Kano

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and presidential candidate of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has lost over 200, 000 members of his Atiku Care Foundation as seven coordinators of the group from the North-West states defected to the All Progressive Congress (APC), declaring loyalty to President Muhammadu Buhari’s 2019 re-election bid.

This is coming as over 300 aspirants of the All Progressives Congress (APC) who had contested the party’s primaries in Kano State have dumped the party due to what they described as gross injustice meted out to them during the recent primary elections.

The Atiku group, which officially joined one of President Muhammadu Buhari’s campaign organisations, the Arewa Network Group, led by Abdulmajid Danbiliki Kwamanda, said they decided to dump Atiku over their conviction that Nigeria would be better if President Buhari is given another mandate to return in 2019.

Speaking to Reporters in Kano yesterday, the spokesman of the group and former Director of Administration and Strategy for the North-west zone of the Atiku Care Foundation, Sunusi Ababai, said over 200, 000 members of the Atiku Care Foundation in the North-west have declared their loyalty to President Buhari.

“For several years now, we have been working hard for the development of Atiku Care Foundation. A lot of promises were made when we started.

“They told us that Alhaji Atiku Abubakar needed a platform to reach out to the masses at the grassroot. We were committed because there were a lot of programmes from healthcare delivery, education, entrepreneurship, and youth and women empowerment.

“We started with our own money. Nobody gave us a dime because we believed that Atiku meant well for the nation; but unfortunately, we were abandoned at a time structure of the Foundation became solid. We were waiting all these while for Atiku to finance the programmes, only for us to hear how he splashed Dollars in Rivers state just to win the PDP presidential primaries.”

Ababai said the group has decided to pitch its tent with President Muhammadu Buhari’s 2019 re-election bid for his foresight and commitment to redeem Nigeria from the shackles of corruption and poverty.

“We worked for him without money, but he did not even appreciate our efforts and contributions. We believe that if such a person is given the mandate, he will disappoint Nigerians. So, our support for President Buhari is based on our personal conviction that he is the Messiah Nigeria needs now.

In another development, over 300 aspirants of the All Progressives Congress (APC) who had contested the party’s primaries in Kano State have dumped the party due to what they described as gross injustice meted out to them during the recent primary elections.

Spokesman of the aggrieved contestants, Senator Isah Yahaya Zarewa, told reporters yesterday after a meeting at his residence in Kano that the contestants have no cogent reason to remain in the party.

“In view of the bitter experience they had of a political game that had provided no level playing field to all of them. In any democratic dispensation, the issue of internal democracy must be allowed to take a precedence considering the competing demands when it comes to the issue of according one the leverage to contest for a position of his choice

“From what had transpired during the primary elections, the norm of internal democracy was blatantly submerged, “he said.

Senator Zarewa noted that the spate of internal wrangling in the party in the state in the wake of the disputed primaries would not have arisen, if all the contestants were fully convinced that there was no foul play or any gimmick.

“We were highly offended because our grievances have not been heard by the leadership of our party at all levels. One can clearly understand that we were treated badly.

“We are all stakeholders in making the APC great and have the capacity to ensure its victory at the polls. We were made to believed that we are no longer relevant, hence our decision to pull out”.