Gyang Bere, Jos
Plateau State Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Hon. Letep Dabang, has queried a former Ambassador of Nigeria to Switzerland and Board of Trustee (BoT) member of the APC, Yahaya Kwande, for anti-party activities.
Amb. Kwande had accompanied former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, to Plateau State Secretariat, to woo PDP to canvass support ahead of the PDP presidential primaries.
Hon. Dabang queried Kwande’s action during the APC stakeholders meeting for Central Senatorial Zone, held in Pankshin Local Government Area of the state.
According to Dabang, “I have asked the elder statesman to explain why he accompanied a presidential aspirant from the opposition party for submission of nomination form towards seeking to contest against the APC Presidential candidate, Muhammadu Buhari.”
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He said APC is not a lawless party and that all its members should respect its principles as no one is above the law.
Meanwhile, Alhaji Yahaya Kwanda, said he is proud to be associated with Alhaji Abubakar Atiku, one of the presidential aspirants of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
He noted that he had a long standing political relationship of over 30 years with Abubakar Atiku and has no reason to abandon him.
In the words of Kwande, “Atiku defected to the PDP, my party started treating me very badly.
“I was even sent out of our meeting, though they came back later to apologise to me.”
“I want to say that anybody who thinks that I won’t support Atiku, his head should be examined if he has a psychiatric problem. Atiku has been my political associate for over 30 years. How can I abandon him?
“But what I said when I attended Atiku’s meeting at the PDP Secretariat in Jos was, ‘This is the season of defections; people crossing from one party to the other, and I asked that if today Lalong and I cross over to the PDP would you be surprised?”
“But I did not say I have agreed with Lalong to cross over. I never said so. I definitely did not say that I have agreed with Lalong to defect to the PDP.
“In fact, I even declared publicly that I am still a card-carrying member of the APC. I fronted for Lalong and introduced him to Atiku and followed it up until he won as Governor in 2015, and I am not lying. It happened here in my house and Lalong knows that.”
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However, Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau State appreciated members of Plateau Central Senatorial zone for adopting him and President Buhari as candidates for 2019 gubernatorial and presidential elections, respectively.
Governor Lalong stressed that the party respects the wish of any member who intends to seek for any of the positions up for grasp in the coming primary elections.
He urged members to disregard those claiming to be government candidates and choose credible contestants because he does not have anointed aspirants in the APC.