Taraba APC moves to unseat PDP, receives decampees soon

The recent foundation laid by the national leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to reconcile aggrieved members in Taraba State and also woo new members from other parties has begun to yield positive results. The party is now perfecting plans to receive decampees from opposition parties.

It would be recalled that a member of the party’s national Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (NCECPC), Professor Mohammed Tahir, had earlier visited the state to engage aggrieved members in a roundtable. He urged them to beat the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the next election. PDP has presided over the affairs of the state since the inception of democracy 20 years ago.

PDP’s dominance since 1999 has been a source of worry to the opposition. As such, the APC rescue team, which came visiting with representatives of the party’s caretaker committee, was particular about reconciling aggrieved APC stalwarts.

Meanwhile, Taraba APC has finally confirmed that bigwigs from opposition parties, especially the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), are on the verge of joining forces with the APC to unseat the ruling party comes 2023.

Citing recent developments where some top PDP members, including Governor Dave Umahi of Ebonyi State, decamped to APC, plans for the state chapter of the party to receive decampees from the PDP, according to the state caretaker chairman, Barrister Ibrahim Tukur El-Sudi, have been concluded. Some chieftains of PDP have concluded plans to ditch the party. 

Though he refused to make public those leaving PDP for APC, El-Sudi recently made the revelation while answering questions from journalists at the state’s party secretariat shortly after swearing-in of the state caretaker committee.

He said; “I am not going to mention names, but I know that very big people, juggernauts of PDP, have started talking to me at a very high level.”

The chairman, who believed that “they are coming back to APC because they are disenchanted and not happy with what is happening in PDP,” said APC would not depart from allowing internal democracy to remain the watchword of the party. 

Citing “absence of leadership and lack of internal democracy” as reasons for the planned mass exodus from PDP to APC, El-Sudi said, “they have seen leadership in APC and are ready to come back so that we can join hands and make sure we form the next government by 2023.”

Optimistic that with the combined efforts of the would-be-decampees the APC would secure victory at the next general election, the party, according to him, would not condone any act of indiscipline hence the need for members to unite. 

While lending credence to El-Sudi’s revelation, some chieftains of the PDP, who confessed that “there are ongoing plans by some aggrieved member of our party to join the APC,” said the party (PDP) is leaving no stone unturned to reconcile aggrieved members, who are already “in deep talks with the major opposition party.”

The PDP, according to the chieftains, who craved anonymity, has set up “a high power committee” saddled with the responsibility of mending the leaking roof of the party.