Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State has dismissed rumours of any possible defection to the ruling party, the All Progressive Congress, APC.
Mohammed while refuting a front-page lead story of 20th November 2020 published in one of the national dallies alleging that he was among three Governors, elected under the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) secretly negotiating to join the ruling party APC, said he has never contemplated leaving his party.
According to him, the rumour was fuelled by the shocking defection of his Ebonyi State counterpart, Governor Dave Umahi, to the APC
In a statement made available to newsmen in Bauchi, the capital Saturday by his Senior Special Assistant on Media, Mukhtar Gidado Mohammed described the story as a ”disingenuous speculation driven by a clear marketing urge, to feed the appetites of readers whose hunger for salacious political news has been fuelled by the movement of the Ebonyi State Governor, His Excellency, Engr. Dave Umahi, to the APC and the spate of political alignments and realignments, in the country”.
The statement partly reads “We wish to state that His Excellency, Senator Bala Mohammed has never contemplated leaving the PDP, let alone joining the APC. Rather, he is presently preoccupied with fulfilling those campaign promises, on the basis of which the good people Bauchi State-supported him, to defeat an incumbent administration.
“Governor Bala Mohammed considers talks about decamping to another party and all the permutations about 2023, in the first place, as unwholesome distractions. In addition, it is his considered opinion that, not only are such talks premature but that it is the height of insensitivity, to the yearnings of the electorate for transformational change that will lift them, from the nadir of despair to a new era of guaranteed security of lives and property, economic prosperity, political stability, and national unity.”
In another development, the state chapter of the PDP has said that it’s not bothered by the defection of a former chairman of Kirfi local government area of Bauchi state Alh. Bappa Danmalikin Bara who recently defected to the opposition party, APC in the state, saying he is politically irrelevant.
The former chairman could not complete his tenure as he was suspended by the governor as a caretaker chairman over allegations of corruption.
However, Danmalikin alleged that he was suspended without a fair hearing.
Addressing journalists, the Bara ward chairman of the party Yakubu Liman Bara described Danmalikin Bara as a disappointment to his ward as he allegedly abused the rare mandate given to him by Governor Bala Mohammed.
