Former military president, General Ibrahim Babangida has assured the Presidential candidate of the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC), General Muhammadu Buhari that all the retired Generals would support him to win the February 14 Presidential election in an effort to salvage Nigeria. This is even as the Niger State Deputy Governor, Alhaji Ahmed Ibeto, and over 200 political office holders have defected from the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to APC.
Speaking while receiving Buhari who visited him in Minna, Babangida said: “all of us will support you in this course to salvage this country.”
He said that the APC’s candidate’s doggedness in sacrificing to salvage Nigeria would not be lost.
“I wish to congratulate members of the party for the honour of nominating my colleague, General Muhammadu Buhari, as your presidential candidate in 2015 elections’’.
He said that the he and Buhari fought the battle to keep Nigeria indivisible, adding that such traits were attributes of patriots.
Earlier, Buhari said that the APC would commence a salvation crusade in Niger, adding that the calibre of people in APC in the state was a testimony.
He thanked Babangida for the support and cameraderie he had enjoyed over the years and assured him that Nigeria was on the verge of change.
He said that APC was set to take over the state with the calibre of the candidates presented for various offices and the quality of those that decamped from the ruling PDP.
The Niger Deputy Governor, told newsmen in Minna: “I am on my way to welcome our party leader and presidential candidate, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, at Minna Airport for his campaign rally in Niger State.”
Ibeto attributed his defection to injustice melted out him and other contestants in the state party primaries, describing the exercise as flawed and stage-managed to favour anointed candidates.
“The electoral process that threw up Alhaji Umar Nasko as PDP governorship candidate was not in accordance with the PDP electoral law and the constitution.
“It is true we are defecting to APC because the primaries conducted were not in accordance wirth the PDP constitution. Myself and other aggrieved party members decided to petition the National Headquaters of the party on the outcome of the governorship primaries with a view to addressing the obvious injustice but met a brickwall.
“We were expecting justice from the party’s national office but nothing was forthcoming, hence we decided to join the APC.”
He however appealed to his supporters to be law abiding and not to make politics a do-or-die battle.
Among those who defected from PDP alongside the deputy governor are serving members of National Assembly, members of State’s House of Assembly, former commissioners and former local governments chairmen. [myad]
