The Peoples Democratic Party in Kano State has described the recent defections of Bayelsa State Governor Douye Diri and his Enugu counterpart, Peter Mbah, to the All Progressives Congress as a welcome relief.
Reacting to the development, the Kano State PDP Chairman, Yusif Kibiya, said the party was “glad” the governors had left.
According to a Vanguard report on Wednesday night, Kibiya insisted that their exit carried no electoral weight and would not affect the party’s fortunes in future elections.
This is as he consequently predicted that the APC is doomed for an explosion.
According to him, the defections were long anticipated and part of the ruling APC’s strategy to weaken opposition voices in the country.
In his words: “It’s not a shocker. All of them, we knew they were going. Anybody in PDP knows. We know that. It’s not a shocker.”
Kibiya continued: “We are glad they are gone. Because you can’t deal with people with double-edged swords. These people are compromised.
“They are thinking they are getting some pay; all these things, by the central government. And some were threatened. It’s very clear. So it’s nothing new with PDP. We all know.”
Dismissing fears that the defections could hurt the PDP’s political prospects, Kibiya argued that the real power lay with the electorate, not governors.
“Is the governor the electorate? This is where people are making this mistake. Because we are making our case to the electorate, the people.
“And this election is going to be the people versus the government. Nigeria versus the government. Not PDP at all,” he said.
He added that the PDP would remain focused on presenting credible candidates, expressing confidence that Nigerians would ultimately side with the opposition.
“So we will make sure that the PDP gets the best candidates. And then the people will decide.
“Let all the governors go to the APC. I don’t even see how it is going to function,” he noted.
The Kano PDP chairman said internal challenges were not unique to the party and that history had shown that defectors rarely thrived outside the PDP.
“The thing is that in any party, there is these kinds of issues. Not only PDP. PDP is the strongest party, and of course, there are issues that came out of the PDP.
“There are people who betrayed PDP, who thought PDP had died. They never believed we could go this far. And they formed their parties like that. Where are they now? Wait for the time,” Kibiya said.
Concluding, the PDP chairman predicted a crisis within the ruling party, declaring confidently: “APC will explode. Of course, it will explode.”
PUNCH.
