By Chidi Levi
When Governor Bala Muhammed of Bauchi state visited Calabar, the Cross River state capital, in March, to dissuade Governor Ben Ayade from dumping the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, he emphatically told his host that “an injustice to Ayade is an injustice to Bala. If you cross, I will cross”
Now, with the defection of the Cross River state governor to the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, will Governor Mohammed carry out his threat by dumping the PDP?
Competent APC sources told this Magazine that it was a matter of time before the Bauchi state governor his Zamfara and Abia state counterparts join Ayade in the party.
For Bala, the drawback, for now, is the lack of a tenable excuse for defecting, it was gathered.
“Since he is in full charge of the PDP in Bauchi, unlike Ayade who lost the party’s structures to Cross River National Assembly members, Bala cannot claim any form of injustice is being perpetrated against him by the National Leadership of the party. So, he is currently shopping for believable reasons to advance for his impending defection”, one of the sources reveal.
Meanwhile, the only reason the Governor is allegedly defecting to the APC, it was gathered, are fears that with the PDP, he may not win re-election in 2023.
The outcome of the November 2020 Baraza Dass state constituency bye-election in which the APC candidate, Bala Lukshi, defeated PDP candidate, Lawal Wandi, was said to have further convinced the Governor that returning to Government House in 2023 on PDP’s platform may be a herculean task.
Bala narrowly defeated former governor Muhammed Abdullahi Abubakar of the APC in 2019 to become Governor. However, the APC took control of the state’s House of Assembly.
On his part, apart from his displeasure with a South-south PDP governor over the latter’s overbearing influence in the party and bullying tendencies, Governor Bello Muhammed Matawalle of Zamfara state is also reportedly concerned about standing for, and winning a second term election on PDP’s ticket having become a PDP Governor by default in 2019( through the instrumentality of the judiciary) in a state that is overwhelmingly APC.
Matawalle has also come under intense pressure from Northwest Governors and party chieftains from the zone to join the APC.
He is the only PDP Governor in the region, and the Governors and party stalwarts have made several overtures to Matawalle to join them in the APC, reminding him that Zamfara is naturally an APC state and, therefore, has no business being in the opposition.
To further ginger his interest, an automatic ticket by the Northwest APC for the 2023 guber election is being dangled before the Zamfara governor.
For Governor Okezie Ikpeazu, his desire to go to the Senate to represent Abia South after his tour of duty as Governor, The Source was informed, is at the heart of his alleged defection bid.
A bosom friend of Governor Ayade, Ikpeazu’s alleged Senate ambition, should he pursue it in the PDP, will collide with Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe’s political interest.
Ikpeazu, the magazine has been informed, does not want to struggle for the PDP Abia South Senatorial 2023 ticket with Senator Abaribe hence his APC moves.
Senator Abaribe who is the Senate Minority Leader, is reportedly gearing up to return to the upper Legislative chamber in 2023.
Meanwhile, the Abia state Governor has through his Special Adviser on Media, Enyinnaya Appolos, dismissed his alleged defection plans.
“Those of you waiting for Okezie Ikpeazu, PhD, Governor of Abia State, to leave the People Democratic Party (PDP), you will wait for eternity…pls enjoy your waiting while Gov Ikpeazu, leader of the PDP in Abia, working with other state and national leadership of the party to ensure a PDP presidency of Nigeria in 2023…Power to the people! PDP!”, Appolos said on his Facebook page.
