With the defection of four Kaduna State House of Assembly lawmakers and five House of Representatives members, along with thousands of their supporters, the state is now 95 per cent All Progressives Congress (APC), Governor Uba Sani declared at a mega rally held over the weekend.
According to him, with the latest defections, APC now has 13 legislators from Kaduna State in the House of Representatives, leaving the PDP with three. Also, there are now 26 APC members in the House of Assembly, compared with eight PDP members.
The mega rally, held at Murtala Square in Kaduna, was attended by APC National Chairman, Professor Nentawe Yilwatda; Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt Hon Tajudeen Abbas; Minister of Environment, Alhaji Balarabe Abbas Lawal; as well as the Chairman of the North West Development Commission, Alhaji Lawal Samaila Yakawada, and several thousand APC supporters.
Speaking at the occasion, Governor Uba Sani assured the decampees that APC is one family which does not discriminate against its members, adding: “Those that have joined our party today and those that have been with us since the creation of this party will have the same privilege.”
“What is more important is your ability to reach out to the grassroots, to carry everyone along, particularly the people of the constituency who elected you and gave you the opportunity to represent them,” he said.
The Governor recalled that APC had only four members in the House of Representatives in 2023, but the party now has 14 members in the lower legislative chamber.
“Today in Kaduna, we don’t have any opposition. I promised President Bola Ahmed Tinubu some months ago that we were looking at 80 per cent of the votes. But today, I have shifted my ground; about 95 per cent of the total votes in Kaduna State will go to APC in 2027,” he said.
According to him, the influx of elected members into the APC in Kaduna State is not rocket science but is based on his administration’s focus on justice, fairness, and inclusivity.
“Our state is the most diverse in Nigeria. When we came in, we made sure that we used our diversity as our strength. That is why today we have not experienced a single ethno-religious crisis in Kaduna State. It’s unprecedented.
“We are working as one family. We believe politics is about unity. It’s about working for the interests of the people. Poverty has no respect for religion. Poverty has no respect for ethnicity. Poverty has no respect for political affiliation. We have to work as one family. Our interest is our state,” he added.
The Governor further pointed out that Kaduna State has 23 local governments and that he has spread development across the three geopolitical zones.
Meanwhile, speaking at the ceremony, Professor Nentawe described APC as “the promised land” for Nigerian politicians, adding that the duo of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Governor Uba Sani deserve a second term owing to their achievements.
House of Representatives Speaker Tajudeen Abbas noted that APC has achieved political dominance in Kaduna State, a feat no party had ever attained in the state.
“Today, whether in Zone 1, Zone 2, or Zone 3, APC is the party to beat,” he declared to the mammoth crowd, adding: “We’ve never been this strong before,” he stressed.
Honourable Husseini Jalo, who spoke on behalf of the decampees, thanked Governor Uba Sani and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for providing good leadership in the state and the country, respectively.
According to him, Kaduna State is now a one-party state, and both the President and Governor Uba Sani will be re-elected for a second term.
The federal legislators who defected from PDP to APC are Hon Sadiq Ango (Sabon Gari federal constituency), Hon Andulkarim Husseini Ahmad (Kaduna South), Hon Aliyu Mustapha Abdullahi (Ikara/Kubau), and Hussaini Jalo (Igabi).
Similarly, other notable defectors include ex-Senator Danjuma Lah (PDP), former Senator Suleiman Othman Hunkuyi (NNPP), and ex-Senator Shehu Sani (PDP), as well as former Governor Muktar Ramalan Yero, including Hon Saidu Adamu, the State Secretary of PDP.
