More PDP govs ‘joining APC before election’

John Oyegun, chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), says some governors of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will soon join the opposition party.

Oyegun, who was speaking in Benin on Wednesday, said the report was far from being a speculation because he had held meetings with the governors.

But he declined to disclose their names.

“I have held meetings with some governors that want to join the APC from the PDP. The PDP canoe will soon sink because an earthquake will consume it,” he said.

“February 14 is date that is special for our party because from that day, Jonathan will start to park his belongings from Aso Rock. It is clear that PDP and Jonathan are running scared and that’s why they are calling for a postponement of the election.”

During his 64th birthday celebration on Tuesday, Kawu Baraje, a former PDP acting chairman who facilitated the defection of five PDP governors to the APC in 2013, hinted that five more governors would join the opposition party before the election.

Though Sule Lamido of Jigawa, Babaginda Aliyu of Niger and Isa Yuguda of Bauchi have been touted as some of the governos in an alliance with APC, they have all denied the report.

Speaking in Minna, capital of Niger on Tuesday, Aliyu described the report that he has sympathy for Muhammadu Buhari, the presidential candidate of the APC, as untrue

“Some people are saying some of us have sympathy for Buhari,” he said.

“I must say this: Buhari may be honest as an individual; we may admire him for his personal qualities, but believe me, those qualities do not translate into public policies.”

Sule Lamido, the northwest coordinator of President Goodluck Jonathan re-election campaign, also tried to defend a recent meeting that he held with Rotimi Amaechi, his Rivers state colleague and the director-general of Buhari campaign organisation.

He said he only met with Amaechi to discuss issues bothering on avoiding heating up of the polity.