December 11, (THEWILL) – Two serving members of the Gombe State House of Assembly, Honourable Hamza Adamu, representing Balanga South and Honourable Bappah Usman Jurara, representing Funakaye South State Constituency, have defected from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to the opposition, New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP).
The two lawmakers defected to the NNPP after meeting with the party’s gubernatorial candidate in the State, Alhaji Khamisu Ahmed Mailantarki.
Their defection came barely a day after the APC in the State flagged off its 2023 governorship campaign.
The lawmakers said they decided to join the NNPP in the best interest of the State.
Meanwhile, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the State, Alhaji Jamil Gwamna, has defected to the APC.
A statement signed by his Media Assistant, Ibrahim Sani, said Gwamna announced his defection along with his supporters on Friday.
Sani said Gwamna cited internal crisis, poor leadership, disregard for rule of law within the party and disunity as reasons for his decision to dump the PDP.
“The leadership of the PDP in the state has poorly managed affairs of the party, which led to different factions within the party.
“My political ideology is anchored on unity, inclusiveness, fairness and justice and if those are not found in the party then there is no reason to be in that camp”, he said.
Gwamna, who is also the Sardauna of Gombe, said the PDP could not manage Gombe State with the “crop of leadership it has that prioritises personal interest against collective interest.
“In politics, internal democracy is very key and if you cannot find that playing out, then practising democracy on a larger platform such as governing the state becomes a big issue.”
He called on his supporters to mobilise grassroots support across the state to ensure that APC retained the state with a better voting margin than that of 2019