Isstifanus lamented the party primaries in the state and that Adamawa governor Jibrilla failed to keep the promises made to him before joining the party.
Billy Graham Abel, Yola
An APC political aspirant in the just concluded party primaries in Adamawa, Habila Istifanus, has defected to the PDP, stating the unfair and unjust conduct of primaries among the reasons for his departure from ruling party in the northeastern state.
Isstifanus lamented that the party primaries in the state were marred by controversies and that Adamawa State governor Mohammed Umaru Jibrilla, who was key to his joining the APC, failed to keep any of the promises made to him before joining the party.
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His decision to return to the PDP was informed by a desire to align with the interest of his people, he said.
Istifanus made the remarks Monday in Yola.
“Right now, I am here in the PDP because I trust the people. [PDP governorship candidate Umaru] Fintiri Fintiri and Atiku are people you can trust and they are surely the people that would win in the 2019 elections,” Istifanus stated as he announced his defection.
“I am disappointed in APC as a party and with the way they conduct their affairs, so I have decided to part ways with them.
“My entire political structure with its over thirty thousand followers is committed to working for the PDP and in support of the PDP governorship candidate, Umaru Fintiri, and the presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar.
“Atiku is from my area and he is a very huge factor in my decision to return to the PDP but it would not be only me, but I assure you, hundreds of other politicians will soon leave the APC for PDP because of Atiku,” he said.
While receiving the decampee, the state’s PDP gubernatorial candidate, Umaru Fintiri, said: “No one is happy with this government that has unleashed poverty and hunger in Adamawa State.
“This is the first government in Adamawa State that finds it reprehensible to pay civil servants their salaries or retirees their entitlement.
“The fight to remove APC is not a fight for our personal interest, it is a fight for the future of our children.”