BY ADEYEMI AKANJI, BAUCHI – Few days after flagging off its North-East Zonal presidential campaign, the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP, has lost thousands of its supporters in the zone to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The presidential candidate of the NNPP, Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso was in Bauchi last week Thursday for the North-East Zonal campaign rally of the party during which he handed over flags to all the candidates of the party in the six states of the North-East.
However, the North-East Zonal Secretary of the NNPP, Babayo Liman, while leading thousands of members out of the party, announced his resignation of his membership of the party and his office.
Liman told Journalists on Monday at the NUJ Press Center, Bauchi that he decided to dump the party as a result of lack of focus as a formidable opposition political party, adding that the NNPP has become the platform of one person who is pursuing personal political interest.
Liman, who was the National Coordinator of the North-East, State Coordinator of the NNPP presidential campaign council, said that Nigeria needs a good leader who knows how to handle all parts of the country, stressing that Atiku Abubakar is the answer.
He said that believes that only the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar can salvage the country from its present hardship and dwindling economic situation considering his antecedent as former vice president of the country for eight years.
In his words; “I, Babayo Liman, have resigned my appointment as National, Zonal Secretary, Member, Presidential Campaign, Coordinator of Kwankwasiyya, and also my membership from the party.
“I am here with some of my executive members and thousands of supporters to declare our intention to join the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and to support the candidacy of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar as President of Nigeria and Bala Mohammed as Governor of Bauchi state respectively.
“I am calling on all my supporters in the entire North-East sub-region to follow my steps to decamp from the NNPP to PDP, and also call on my supporters in Bauchi state to do the same.
“I’m also calling on my supporters across all nocks and cranny to support the candidacy of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar to emerge victorious in the forthcoming general election in the country,” he said.
At the media briefing, Babayo Liman publicly removed the Kwankwasiyya caps from all the former NNPP supporters who were then presented with PDP membership cards.
