Mass defections brighten APC’s chances in Yobe

Yobe shares many commonalities with Borno in terms of party affiliations and voting pattern. In most instances, the ruling party takes all, leaving the opposition agape.

The last presidential and National Assembly elections come to mind when anyone thinks of what will happen tomorrow.

On Feb. 23, Yobe delivered President Buhari with wide margin and won all the senatorial and National Assembly seats, including the Senate seat for Yobe South which is currently occupied by Sen. Mohammed Hassan Dambu of the PDP.

The APC has the immediate past National Secretary of the party, Mai Mala Buni as its candidate while PDP has Amb. Umar Iliya Damagum.

Not long ago, many political parties endorsed the candidature of Mala Buni and vowed to mobilize their supporters to vote for him.

Two weeks ago, the APC received a sizeable number of defectors from the PDP. In Potiskum, the stronghold of PDP, where it defeated Sen. Dambu, the APC threw another huge blow by wooing a governorship aspirant, Ibrahim Talba, his supporters and party structure.

Also, PDP was further depleted in the zone as its chairman in Fika Local Government, Alhaji Adamu Ba’abba, denounced his membership and embraced APC. According to Ba’abba, his defection to APC came along with over a 1,000 supporters from PDP and the Mega party.

At a campaign rally in Machina in northern Yobe, the PDP chairman of the local government, Alhaji Ali Makinta, along with nine officials of the party defected to APC, an action that turned the table of votes that PDP might likely secure in the district.

Political analysts are of the belief that the mass exodus of PDP officials and loyalists ahead of the forthcoming governorship/state House of Assembly elections is a bad signal to the party’s chances.

However, Amb. Damagum said at a press conference an hour after the defection of the state chairman, that the development will not affect their chances.

“The defection of the state chairman (Sani Inuwa Nguru) will not affect the fortune of the party because he is not worth the name,” he said.

“The moment I leave this interview, I am going to Yobe North to receive defectors in Machina and Nguru, where the son of Nguru is the PDP House of Assembly candidate, and has promised to carry on with his ambition,” he said.

For now, analysts have predicted that the election will be a walkover for the ruling party, considering the weakness of the party PDP.

An observer, Alhaji Ahmadu Ibrahim, said the political scenario has clearly shown that the PDP candidate is not keenly contesting for the seat.

The “APC candidate is busy campaigning and wooing PDP officials and supporters in their strongholds, but the PDP doesn’t seem to care. It’s like they have given up,” he said.

“Also, Yobe has been an opposition party state, right from the days of APP to ANPP and now APC which won in 2015 as an opposition. Therefore, it will take a lot of effort and resources for any party to get relevance in the state, let alone producing a governor,” he said.

Another analyst, Lawan Cheri, said besides promising to continue with the good policies of Governor Ibrahim Gaidam in the areas of health, education, and prompt payment of salaries among others, the campaign promise of Mala Buni to return motorcycles operation that was banned due to insecurity in the state has won the votes of teeming youths in the state.

“He was strategic by promising to see the possibility of lifting the ban. You will see how they would troop to vote for him,” he said.