Aisha Alhassan, Buhari’s ex-minister, returns to PDP

Aisha Alhassan, former minister of women affairs, says she has completed arrangements to return to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Alhassan was the governorship candidate of the United Democratic Party (UDP) in the last election. She joined the UDP on the eve of the polls after she failed to secure the All Progressives Congress (APC) ticket.

Mama Taraba, as she is fondly called, was appointed minister by President Muhammadu Buhari, but she resigned over doubts of her political loyalty.

She had said in a interview that she would remain loyal to Atiku Abubakar, Buhari’s political rival.

On Sunday, Alhassan told journalists after a UDP stakeholders meeting in Jalingo that a majority of her supporters in Taraba encouraged her to rejoin the PDP.

She said the stakeholders meeting, which lasted until midnight on Saturday, drew participation from all those who contested for various political offices on the platform of the UDP.

Alhassan said more than 80 percent of respondents in an opinion poll conducted by a committee headed Abdulmumini Vaki, a former PDP chairman in the state, suggested that she should return to the PDP.

The former minister said she had no option but to go by the decision of the majority members of the UDP.

“I cannot go against the decision of the popular opinions of my supporters”, she said.  She also said she was glad that the committee did not suggest the APC as an option.

Alhassan contested and won the election for the senatorial seat of Taraba north in 2011 under the PDP before defecting to APC in 2015.