*Says Atiku can rescue Nigerians from insecurity, banditry, poverty, unemployment
By; SADIQ ABUBAKAR, Maiduguri
The Zonal Secretary, New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP,), North East, Dr. Babayo Liman has defected to the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP).
He said he dumped NNPP for PDP along with his over 600 supporters in Borno State due to poor leadership and party structure, which could not be resolved internally for over six months, while general election is fast approaching.
Addressing journalists at a briefing on Monday, held at the NUJ Centre Maiduguri, Dr Babayo added that one of his reasons for defection was the inability of the National Leader of the NNPP, Dr. Musa Rabiu Kwankwaso to manage the lingering crisis rocking the party in Bauchi State, where he hails from.
He said on several occasions, they approached the National Leader to resolve the crisis in the state, but to no avail as he could not properly handle the issues to a logical conclusion as no concrete steps were taken to solve the crisis.
Liman who was accompanied by supporters in Borno who defected along with him from the NNPP to PDP, further claimed that the leader of NNPP, Dr Kwankwaso does not possess the leadership qualities to lead Nigeria if he cannot resolve crisis within his party in a particular state.
” I defected from NNPP on the 14th January, 2023 in Bauchi, but Borno being one of the states that make up my political zone, I decided ro visit all the states in the North East to inform thousands of my supporters that we are defecting to PDP in full support of the Presidential Candidate of the PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.
“With me here, I have some of the NNPP executive from the 27 local government areas and over 650,000 registered members in Borno State, but as I cannot bring all of them here, I decided to invite few of these executive members and some supporters to declare our intention in moving to the PDP.
“Our reason for supporting Atiku Abubakar is because of his track records and pedigree to rescue Nigerians from the clutches of insecurity, banditry, poverty, unemployment and bad policies of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).” Bayo said.
According to him, any other alleged reason for his defection being rumoured by some NNPP members are false and unfounded, if not baseless against his personality and years of experience he put in forming and steering the affairs of NNPP from the beginning to date in his capacity as Zonal Secretary of NNPP, apart from his personal relationship with Dr. Kwankwaso for over 10 years before his defection.
