I’ve No Plan To Leave APC – Bauchi Speaker Declares

BY AEYEMI AKANJI, BAUCHI – Following rumour and insinuations that he is set to dump the All Progressives Congress (APC), the Speaker of the Bauchi State House of Assembly, Hon. Abubakar Y Suleiman has declared he has never contemplated leaving the party under on which platform he was elected into the Assembly.

Speaker Suleiman, who stated this when he granted audience to the APC leadership of his Guda Ward in Ningi Local Government Area of the State when they paid him a congratulatory visit on his election as the Chairman of Conference of Speakers of State Legislatures of Nigeria, said that such a thought has never crossed his mind.

He assured that he will remain loyal and grateful to the APC on whose platform he contested and won the 2019 election and therefore urged them to ignore such rumours.

Commenting on why his refusal to speak at the APC’s grand finale campaign in Dass last week owing to rumours of his impending plans to move out, Suleiman said the APC members of the Assembly had an arrangement that it was the Majority Leader, Tijjani Muhammad Aliyu as Leader of the party in the Assembly that would speak on behalf of the party’s lawmakers.

According to him; “Not only during Dass campaign, in many events of the Party, we usually ask the Majority Leader to speak for us. And check the programme of events of the Dass Campaign, they never mention that Speaker Abubakar Y Suleiman will speak but mentioned speech of APC leadership of Bauchi State House of Assembly. So, there is nothing wrong if our party leader in the Assembly speaks for us.

“Some people are saying I did not go to Dass for the election but even my colleagues know that I was sick on Friday to the level that I could not attend Juma’at prayer. The Majority Leader and some members went there for us.

“Most of these lies and rumours are being created and disseminated by people who rely in defamation, lies and political brigandage to make money. Some of them could not forget what transpired during our inauguration which they see as disloyalty to the party,” he said.

Suleiman continued; “But all APC lawmakers have forgiven each other and moved on. Why can’t they also forgive and work with us to rebuild our party? If only they care about success of the party.

“I want to assure you that I am an APC member and will remain APC member today and tomorrow, nobody can remove me from the party,” he said.

Earlier in his remarks, the chairman APC, Guda Ward, Alhaji Ya’u Kafinta, said that they visited the Speaker to congratulate him over his recent election as Chairman of Conference of Speakers of State Legislature of Nigeria which he said is great source of joy and pride to all people of the area.

Kafinta noted how Speaker Suleiman contributed immensely to the growth and development of Guda Community even before joining politics.

While expressing the confidence of the party leadership of Guda Ward on the Speaker, Kafinta encouraged him not be distracted by the antics of the enemies and doomsayers.