Kebbi: ‘Bagudu fighting people who helped him to power’

Abdullahi Muhammad, a factional leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), in Kebbi State, has accused the governor of the state, Senator Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, of causing a crisis in the state chapter of the party by fighting its founding fathers

Muhammad, a former commissioner in the state, made this accusation while speaking on Trust TV political programme, Daily Politics.

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While reacting to the crisis in the party where many are defecting to other opposition parties, Muhammad said all efforts to reconcile warring factions had proved abortive, adding that the state governor was determined to sideline those who helped him to office in the first place.

He said, “The issue in Kebbi State is clear and very unique. Those people I mentioned, Senator Muhammed Aleiro, the former governor who was the Minister, FCT and now a serving senator; including a former federal Permanent Secretary, Niger Delta Commission who is also a serving senator and now occupying the position of a leader of the party.

“These people are being neglected, marginalised and even their disciples who came along with them to make the party what it is were all dropped for the reason best known to the governor.

“The issue is that there is no sincerity, there is no commitment.”

Muhammad, who is the leader of the faction Aliero belongs to, said the party did not carry out true primaries in the state, adding that the governor only selected those he wanted.

He also said the APC in the state under the leadership of Bagudu had not performed enough to attract votes from the electorate in 2023.

“The distinguished senator remains extremely loyal to Mr President and also loyal to the national chairman but to the contrary, the governor is going his own way.

“He has no respect for them. These are the people who brought him. They brought him to power. He came all the way from PDP, these people put him there as a candidate in 2014 and he won the election.

“They are the people who put together all the resources required to make him a governor but today he has turned them to enemies,” Muhammad said.

He said the governor spends more time in Abuja than in Kebbi State to serve those who elected him into power.