•Ganduje’s aide tags Lamido phony political prophet
In a major political realignment, yesterday, Senators Adamu Aliero (Kebbi Central), Yahaya Abdullahi (Kebbi North) and Garba Maidoki (Kebbi South) officially defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC), citing deep-seated internal crises within the PDP and a shared vision with President Bola Tinubu’s development agenda.
However, Senior Special Assistant on Public Enlightenment to the APC National Chairman, Oliver Okpala, described former governor of Jigawa State, Sule Lamido, as a phoney political prophet.
This followed Lamido’s prophecy that the APC would soon split with Ganduje defecting to the PDP. Announcing his decision in a letter read on the Senate floor, Aliero, a former governor and founding member of the APC, said his move followed deep reflection, extensive consultations, and a careful assessment of Nigeria’s political and socio-economic landscape.
“Politics must never be about personal loyalty to a platform,” he said. “It will always be about service, solutions and results. I believe the APC provides a more viable platform through which I can effectively serve my people.”
Alierocriticised the PDP for drifting away from the needs and aspirations of ordinary Nigerians and lamented its “internal disunity and ideological inconsistency.”
Abdullahi, a former Senate Leader, described his return to the APC as a “homecoming,” noting that the issues that forced his exit in 2022 had since been addressed.
With Maidoki’s defection, all three senatorial seats from Kebbi State are now under the APC banner, bolstering the ruling party’s majority in the Red Chamber.
Reacting to the defections, Senate leadership firmly denied claims that opposition lawmakers were defecting under pressure or to evade prosecution. Senate Leader, Opeyemi Bamidele, said: “If anyone will be coerced, it definitely isn’t Senator Aliero, Prof Abdullahi or Senator Maidoki—men with distinguished records in public and private service. These are leaders who know this is a time to build, not to grandstand.”
OKPALA, while reacting to Lamido’s comment, said the former governor had lost grip of the political realities across the country. He maintained that Lamido spoke as someone who had just arrived in the country from abroad without a complete briefing on developments in the country’s orbit of partisan politics.
Wondering why in the imagination of Lamido he envisaged that the APC would ever split, he urged the former governor to look at the disjointed nature of the PDP now and take cognisance of the fact that all notable political leaders of the party had defected to the APC and the remaining few already have one of their legs in the ruling party.
According to Okpala, the political ship of the APC under Ganduje is sailing peacefully and safely without any political hitch or turbulence.