Group urges Northeast to support Atiku as 5,000 Kebbi youths dump PDP

A youth group, the Atikulation 2019 Support Movement in Gombe State has urged the Northeast zone to support Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, to ensure that he wins the election.

This is coming a day after the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Rally in Gombe and the youths’ endorsement of Atiku, urging the people of the zone to vote massively for him in the February 16, 2019 polls.

State Coordinator of the group, Sirajo Bappah Jauro, gave the charge while speaking with journalists in Gombe, shortly after its zonal meeting, describing Atiku’s victory in the 2019 election as victory for the region.

He said Atiku’s candidature was seen as “well deserved and a humbling honour to the Northeast zone that has never had the privilege to lead Nigeria in a democratic setting since the end of the First Republic.”

The group also pledged cooperation and support for him and the PDP to end what it described as APC’s retrogressive leadership in the country.

He urged all PDP structure and the Northeast people to rally round Atiku’s candidature and ensure victory for the Northeast region and for the benefit of all Nigerians.

“We owe Atiku and the PDP a mandate to change APC’s obnoxious change. The last time the Northeast had Nigerian leadership was with Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Nigeria’s first Prime Minister, who laid the foundation for developing the country, we have another opportunity to serve Nigeria and the time is now,” he stated.

Meanwhile, no fewer than 5,000 youths who canvassed support for General Bello Sarkin Yaki in the 2015 gubernatorial election under the PDP in Kebbi State yesterday defected to the APC.

Their defection was announced during the weekend at a reception organised for them by the Governor Abubakar Atiku Bagudu Campaign Organisation in Birnin-Kebbi.

Members of the PDP group under the aegis of General Sarkin Yaki Youth Mobilisation Forum headed by Aliyu Bandado worked for Yaki when he contested against the incumbent governor of Kebbi State in the 2015 governorship poll.

Thereafter, the forum metamorphosed into Senator Abubakar Atiku Bagudu Youth Support for Good Governance.

Bandado said the youths decided to leave PDP following the achievements of the APC-led administration under Bagudu.

Responding, Bagudu said he and his supporters were happy to receive the defectors into the APC fold, adding that they made the right choice by taking a bold step at a time the party was preparing for elections.