No fewer than 2,000 members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Gombe State at the weekend defected to the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP).
The defectors were members of a support group of Dr Jamil Isiyaku Gwamna, an aspirant on the platform of the PDP, who recently defected to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
The officials and members of ‘Sardauna Dawo-Dawo’ group were received into the NNPP by Khamisu Ahmed Mailantarki, the party’s governorship candidate in the state, and chairman of the party, Alhaji Abdullahi Maikano.
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The chairman of the group, Muhammad Makson, said it was a collective decision of the members to pull out of their support for PDP and join the NNPP to support the party to produce better leadership in the state.
He said as former members of the ‘Sardauna Dawo-Dawo,’ they have now converted the group into ‘Mailantarki Movement’ after their defection.
“We believe Mailantarki can rescue Gombe State from the misrule of the APC. He has always been saying the right things and has done the right things in the past,” he said.
Makson noted that the group had about 2,000 executive members and over 20,000 volunteers spread across the 114 political wards across the 11 local government areas of the state.
Receiving the defectors, Mailantarki pledged that they would be treated equally with other members of the party in the state and would be involved in all the activities of the party, “especially now that campaigns have commenced.”
