Opposition Moves to Stop Sule’s Re-election in Nasarawa

The All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) recently merged with a faction of the Peoples Democratic Party in Nasarawa State with a view to halt the re-election bid of Governor Abdullahi Sule of the All Progressives Congress, reports Igbawase Ukumba.

Records has it that the outcome of the 2019 presidential election marked the first time the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was defeated in Nasarawa State in a presidential election since the return to democracy in 1999.

This was even as President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who won the state for the first time in his political adventure, got his highest number of votes in Lafia, the state capital, where he polled 55,254 votes to defeat his closest rival, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the PDP who got49,292 votes.

Atiku, on the other hand, got his highest number of votes in Karu Local Government Area of the state. The Nasarawa State Presidential Election Results as announced by the Returning Officer, Prof. Azuibike Nwankwo of the Nigeria Academy of Science (NAS), said President Buhari defeated Atiku Abubakar of the PDP with a margin of 6,056 votes.

Results collated by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Nasarawa State Office in Lafia showed President Buhari polled 289,903 votes to defeat Atiku Abubakar who polled 283,847 votes. A breakdown of the result showed that out of the 13 Local Government Areas of the state, President Buhari won eight, while Atiku Abubakar took the remaining five council areas.

Similarly, the incumbent Governor Sule, who was the governorship candidate of the APC in 2019 general election polled 327,229 votes to defeat Dr. Emmanuel Ombugadu of the PDP, who had polled 184,281 votes.

Whereas the candidate of APGA, Mr. Labaran Maku, came third with 132,281 votes. The declaration was made by the Returning Officer for the Governorhip Election in the state, Professor Bala Abdullahi.

Findings indicated that what might have influenced the victory of the APC candidates during the 2019 polls in Nasarawa could, on one hand, be attributed to the then incumbent governor, Senator Umaru Tanko Al-Makura.

The fact was that the then Governor Al-Makura had four years to the 2019 general election, planted all the APC structures in Nasarawa state from the ward to state levels.

Therefore, the prevailing political structures established by Senator Al-Makura in the Nasarawa State chapter of the APC, paved the way for the party to win the 2019 election across board in the state.

On the other hand, the defection of former Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku, from the PDP to APGA during the build up to the 2019 polls was an added advantage to the APC in Nasarawa State. Invariably, Maku’s defection to  APGA split PDP’s votes at the polls, hence making it easy-going for the APC to win the state across board.

APGA has, however, recently merged with the PDP in Nasarawa State to wrestle power from the ruling APC in the state. The Director General of the 2023 Atiku/Ombugadu Campaign Council, Mr. Labaran Maku, disclosed this at the headquarters of Nassarawa Local Government Area of the state in continuation of the PDP 2023 statewide electioneering campaign rally.

Maku specifically said his splinter group that  left the PDP for  APGA in the previous elections had reunited with the PDP in order to wrestle power from the incumbent governor, Abdullahi Sule in the forth coming poll. He claimed that the incumbent Governor  did not win the 2019 governorship election as he (Sule) came last, insisting that with his coming back to the PDP alongside his teeming supporters, the incumbent governor and APC would be defeated  with a wide margin in 2023.

Consequently, Maku maintained that the PDP Presidential Candidate, Atiku Abubakar, would be given a block vote in Nasarawa State during the presidential election as a protest to bad governance exhibited by the ruling APC.

On the allegations of bad governance exhibited by the ruling APC in the State, Maku accused Governor Sule of collecting security vote of N14.4 billion for about four years without securing the state.

Maku, who was a former supervising Minister of Defense during the Goodluck Jonathan administration, made the accusations at the headquarters of Wamba Local Government Area in continuation of the Nasarawa PDP state zonal campaign rally, insisting that people no longer go to their farms because there was no peace in the state any longer.

The PDP campaign DG who spoke at the Wamba zonal rally in Hausa dialect, said: “Since the coming of APC, there is nothing to show for their credit. They have wasted our time. They didn’t allow us to enjoy peace, as hunger took toll on the people, while unemployment became the order of the day.

“There is no electricity in Toto since 2015. But imagine wickedness that since Sule became governor of Nasarawa State, he collected not less than N300 million monthly as security vote but failed to rectify the issue.”

Maku continued that if you multiplied the monthly N300 million security vote by 12 months, it will amount to N3.6 billion per year. The former Minister also calculated further that if the N3.6 billion was multiplied by four years, it would amount to a total sum of N14.4 billion as security monies collected by Sule during his four-year regime.

“So, if you give the incoming PDP government the N14.4 billion, I am sure Toto doesn’t need up to N1 billion to have electricity. And People no longer go to their farms because there is no longer peace in the land despite the N14.4 billion security vote given to the governor. That is why we are calling on you that this forth coming general election will not be a joke,” he said.

Maku, a former National Secretary of APGA, went down memory lane recollecting that in the beginning of Nasarawa as a state, it was under PDP because the peole voted for the party in 1999 almost 100%, hence all developments carried out in the state where under the administration of PDP.

He said: “PDP established Nasarawa Broadcasting Service (NBS), the Lafia Township Stadium. PDP formed Nasarawa United FC. The state School of Nursing and the state Polytechnic. There is nothing in existence in Nasarawa State at the moment that was not a child brain of the PDP.

“PDP established the Nasarawa State University Keffi (NSUK), Federal University of Lafia, Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Keffi, Dalhatu Araf Specialist Hospital (DASH), Lafia, CBN Lafia branch, and constructed the Lafia – Awe road as well as the Lafia – Doma road.

“One reason PDP is actually the party to beat in 2023 is that the incumbent governor has not performed. If you look at, the whole President of Nigeria visited Nasarawa State, after four years in government. What did the president commission. It was two motor parks, One in Lafia and one in Mararaba.

“You know as I know in 2019, they didn’t win. There were a lot of malpractices. If you look at the true records of that election, they came last. So in this dispensation, there is no APC in Nasarawa State.

“If you add APGA’s results with that of PDP, you will see that APC came at a far distance. So if you add those results now, it will be more than what it was in 2019. That is why in this election, we are not talking about how we will win, but on what margin,” Maku expressed confidence.

Reacting swiftly to Maku’s accusations, Governor Sule when speaking at the headquarters of Akwanga Local Government Area of the state in continuation of his statewide re-election campaign ahead of the 2023 general election, however, said he has been in power for only three years, yet some of them have been in power for the past 16 years.

“Some were commissioners, some were deputy governors, some were senators, some were ministers, yet I have to come and construct the road leading to their villages. The opposition has nothing tangible to offer the state, but merely seeking power to squander the savings made by my administration.

“With these types of politicians, it’s far better we bring a businessman to come and develop our state. They can only appeal to sentiments because they lack what to say as far as performance in my administration is concerned,” Governor Sule insisted.

He described the opposition as myopic by their quest for raw power, which they have failed to acknowledge that in just three years and for the first time in the history of the state, salary of workers were being paid even before the monthly federal allocation was received.

He added that his knowledge and experience from the private sector had prepared him to provide exceptional leadership to the state which saw to the attraction of investors, especially big commercial agric businesses that were harnessing the abundant agricultural potentials in the state.

“We have also been able to clear backlog of promotions from 11 years ago. Instead of the N20 million monthly allocation to settle gratituity of retired workers, we now pay N100 million in three months.

“Our minerals that used to be taken out of the state in raw form, we are asking investors to come in and refine it here, to add value to these minerals like we are now doing in Karshi and Akwanga. Nasarawa State now produces 30% of marble in Nigeria,” the Governor revealed.