The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has said the defeat the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) suffered in the just concluded presidential and National Assembly elections signaled the end of the party in Nasarawa State. It added that after the March 11 governorship election, remnants of the ruling party would be completely flushed out of the state.
The PDP stated this through its public relations officer, Ibrahim Hamza, in Lafia yesterday. According to the party, the defeat of the two former governors of the state and key stakeholders of the ruling party, Senators Abdullahi Adamu and Umaru Tanko Al-Makura, was a significant milestone in the ongoing efforts to rid the state of godfatherism which had stunted its growth and development for many years.
Senator Adamu is the national chairman of the APC. Until his emergence as the ruling party’s helmsman, he was the senator representing Nasarawa West Senatorial District, a position he held for two terms. Al-Makura, on the other hand, is the incumbent senator representing Nasarawa South Senatorial District. While he lost his bid to return to the upper chamber in the last election, Adamu lost his polling unit to the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Mr. Peter Obi, and his former seat to Ahmed Wadada of the Social Democratic Party (SDP).
“Their losses to us as citizens and stakeholders is significant. It means they won’t be able to hold the state to ransom as they did for many years with their cronies.
“There will be a paradigm shift in the political leadership of the state with the old brigades giving way to the younger ones who are passionate about the development of the state,” Ibrahim explained.
He said the defeat of the APC was a necessary end, adding, “We in the PDP saw it coming and had predicted that it will come to pass.”
He added that the pains inflicted on the psyche of the people of the state for over seven years that the APC had been in power was a pointer that there would be a revolution to flush them out. “And the ballot revolt of last Saturday is indicative that no one is indispensable, and so leaders must be careful with what they do or say, as well as being conscious of the day of the fury of the people. You must not take them for granted.
“In fact, the way and manner they went about their party primaries indicated that they will come to this disastrous end, and time has proven it,” he said.