The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Vice Presidential candidate Delta State Governor, Ifeanyi A. Okowa, and the party’s National Working Committee stormed Sokoto and received several decampees from the All Progressives Congress (APC).
In the same breath, Okowa, who is the incumbent governor of Delta State, assured Nigerians that the mission and vision of the PDP and its presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, was to ensure that Nigeria remains united.
Okowa spoke on Sunday in Sokoto State where he received scores of bigwigs of the state chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) who brought hundreds of their followers in a swift move to dump their party and join the PDP.
“PDP as a party,” Okowa noted, “is a family that stands on the side of truth for Nigeria, unlike APC that wants to scatter it.”
Emphasising that: “It is time to rescue our country and rebuild it,” he recommended that: “the rebuilding process has to start now. It is not for the Governor (of Sokoto state) alone. All of us have to work together to recover this country from those who want to destroy it.”
He pointed out that “there are some people, not in the PDP, who want to contest elections, but they don’t believe in one Nigeria. Nigeria can never be destroyed.
Among the decampees were some of the top-notch members of the APC.
They included Abdullahi Balarabe Salame, a current member of the House of Representatives, who was a former Speaker of the Sokoto State House of Assembly and former Acting Governor of Sokoto State.
Others were: Aminu Mohammed Achida, the current Speaker of the Sokoto State House of Assembly; and Yusuf Suleiman, former Minister of Transport, former Minister of Youth and Sports, former Buhari Campaign DG, and currently the Chairman Governing Board of NAFDAC.
Others were: Yusuf Isah Kurdula, serving member of the House of Representatives; Sen. Bello Jibrin Gada OFR, former Minister of the Feder Republic of Nigeria; Aminu Bello ACY, former Commissioner of Commerce and former Sokoto State APC Secretary; and Murtala Maigona, a serving member of the Sokoto State House of Assembly; and Abdullahi Hassan, former Chairman of the Sokoto North local government.
The rest were: Alh. AA Gumbi, a renowned businessman and APC gubernatorial aspirant; Alh. Yahaya Dallatu, a renowned businessman and Sokoto State APC Treasurer; Alh. Abu Baki Illela, Sokoto State APC Vice Chairman (East); and
