Eight Labour Party candidates, NNPP lawmaker join APC in Northern states

Less than 50 days remain until the start of the 2023 general election in Nigeria, and members, candidates, and a sitting lawmaker are abandoning their party affiliations to join the All Progressives Congress (APC), which is currently in power in Kano and Jigawa State.

Yusuf Babangida, an assemblyman for the state of Kano and a supporter of the APC, was welcomed by governor of Kano State Abdullahi Ganduje on Friday.

At the Kano State House of Assembly, Babangida is the representative of Gwale Local Government. He is a staunch supporter of Rabiu Kwankwaso, the NNPP’s nominee for president.

He charged that the NNPP had abandoned the democratic principles that had guided his political career.

Babangida listed numerous grounds for incoherence in the pursuit of illogical aspirations, including “an undue promotion of personal and familial relationships over and above value generation and insufficiency of political playing turf for upward progression.”

The aforementioned factors, among others, have left me with no choice but to leave the NNPP and continue my political career elsewhere.

Governor Muhammad Badaru of Jigawa State hosted Labour Party candidates running in the APC’s house of assembly elections on Friday.

The eight contenders hail from the seats of Auyo, Kirikasamma, Bulangu, Malammadori, Kafin Hausa, Birniwa, Guri, and Kaugama.

Aminu Gumel, the Jigawa State APC chairman, gave the new members the assurance that they will be given the same advantages and rights as the older members.

One of the defectors is a member of the Labour Party’s northern presidential campaign committee who left the group and joined the APC, according to a statement from Badaru’s media aide Habibu Kila.

According to Kila, the governor thanked them, assured them that they would be included in all party activities, and urged them to remain devoted party members.

Speaking on behalf of his colleagues, one of the defections, Guri Local Government Area lawmaker Muhammad Makinta, said they joined the APC after realizing the party in the state offers greater opportunities.

Kila reported that Makinta gave the governor the assurance that they would do their best to help the APC’s candidates win the general election in their particular spheres of influence.