…. Why we left our party after El-Rufai’s defection – Yusuf Buhari, Gwagwarwa

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In a major political realignment, the 2023 Vice Presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Engr. Yusuf Buhari, alongside the party’s Kano State governorship candidate, Bala Mohammed Gwagwarawa, members of the Kano State Working Committee, 38 local government chairmen and secretaries, 13 house of assembly and 6 house of representatives candidates have defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

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The defection of the SDP’s chieftains was facilitated by the Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Barau I Jibrin. The event was held at the REIZ Continental Hotel, Abuja, on Tuesday.

The move marks a major setback for the former Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, who recently joined the party ahead of the 2027 general elections.

Addressing the decampees, the Deputy President of the Senate, said the defection of the heavyweights of the SDP shows that the mission to use the party to tackle the APC in 2027 was dead on arrival.

” Let me start by saying those who have been moving around, going around the country, trying to woo people to SDP, and thinking that their effort will give birth to a platform that will challenge the APC in the next election, the idea is confirmed to be dead on arrival. Dead on arrival.

” Why do I say that? People have rejected that invitation. People have said no, we are not coming to your party. The former governor of Jigawa State, Sule Lamido and others, who have been mentioned have said no.

” And to add salt into an injury, those who are in the party (SDP) are now moving to our party, APC. The party is going to be empty. Today, the Vice Presidential Candidate, the Governorship Candidate in Kano State and other heavyweights in the SDP have joined APC.

” If we had postponed the meeting to tomorrow, we would have gotten almost all the candidates who stood under the banner of the party in various states being part of this. But we are going to do that in another day in the future,” he said.

Assuring the decampees that they would be treated equally and fairly in the APC, he said, ” everybody is the same. So do not feel that you are coming in today and so you are not as important as those who have been in the party for long. No, you are all the same.”

He commended the decampees for recognizing the progresses that are being recorded under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

” Of course, as you said, when he came on board, he met a situation that was not palatable, but he brought in some reforms that are now being implemented and they are now working. It’s a good situation.

” And we can see how the prices are going down. Prices are going down. Inflation is coming down and so many other things. I’m glad that that is the reason why you decided to move ahead with your people down to the APC.”

The national chairman of the APC, Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje while warmly welcoming the prominent defectors, assured them that they will be availed of all rights and privileges accorded all all party members.

Represented by the Deputy National Chairman (South), Chief Emma Eneukwu, Ganduje described the defection as a transition “from darkness to light,” underscoring APC’s role as a beacon of transformative leadership under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

He describes them as “political heavyweights” with deep grassroots connections, and praised them for aligning with a party dedicated to national renewal.

He emphasized President Tinubu’s bold reforms across economic, social, and governance sectors, expressing confidence that Nigeria will emerge as one of the world’s most developed nations by the end of his tenure.

“APC is a party of inclusion, where every member enjoys equal rights to contest elections and contribute to nation-building,” Dr. Ganduje noted.

On his part, a former governor of Kano State, Senator Kabiru Gaya, told the gathering that the SDP was already empty by the time El-Rufai joined it.

“The party is dead because the Vice Presidential candidate is here, the Governorship Candidate of SDP is here, and all other stakeholders of SDP are here. So I’m sure today we are celebrating the burial of that party.

” I would say kudos to the Deputy Senate President for your effort to bring these important and heavyweight politicians to our party,” he said.

* Why we left our party after El-Rufai’s defection – Yusuf Buhari, Gwagwarwa

The Vice Presidential Candidate of the SDP, Yusuf Buhari, said they were motivated to the APC by the successes being recorded under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

” The fact of the matter is that everything is very clear. When this government came into power under the Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, there were a lot of problems on the ground. Even though we know that the former administration has done a lot, but there are still a lot of problems on the ground.

“Amongst them was the issue of insecurity. The subsidy regime has gone upside down. And because of that, His Excellency, President Bola Tinubu had to instill very strong and very painful economic reforms. Whenever you try to come up with reforms, there have to be pains.

“But after two years, we have started to see that these economic policies are yielding some fruits. The foreign exchange is beginning to stabilize. Prices of goods are coming down. Insecurity is being addressed by our military, by our brave armed forces. So hopefully, a lot of our men and women, especially in the rural areas, are going to go back to their farmlands, which is going to further reduce the cost of good prices,” he said.

Also speaking, the former gubernatorial candidate of the SDP in Kano, Bala Muhammad Gwagwarwa said they decided to return to APC given the outstanding performance of President Tinubu in about two years.

“Today we decided to come back to the family. APC is a family to me. I’m part and parcel of the founders of APC. Today, we decided to come back to APC because now the country is being governed by someone who knows politics, who knows the terrain of democracy. Someone who stood for democracy. Someone who believed in this country and who worked hard to make it better. That is the President, Senator, His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

He thanked the Deputy President of the Senate for laying the foundation for their defection

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Text of the Broadcast by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, declaring State of Emergency in Rivers state on Tuesday 18 March 2025

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Fellow Nigerians, I feel greatly disturbed at the turn we have come to regarding the political crisis in Rivers State. Like many of you, I have watched with concern the development with the hope that the parties involved would allow good sense to prevail at the soonest, but all that hope burned out without any solution to the crisis.

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With the crisis persisting, there is no way democratic governance, which we have all fought and worked for over the years, can thrive in a way that will redound to the benefit of the good people of the state. The state has been at a standstill since the crisis started, with the good people of the state not being able to have access to the dividends of democracy.

Also, it is public knowledge that the Governor of Rivers State for unjustifiable reasons, demolished the House of Assembly of the state as far back as 13th December 2023 and has, up until now, fourteen (14) months after, not rebuilt same. I have made personal interventions between the contending parties for a peaceful resolution of the crisis, but my efforts have been largely ignored by the parties to the crisis. I am also aware that many well-meaning Nigerians, Leaders of thought and Patriotic groups have also intervened at various times with the best of intentions to resolve the matter, but all their efforts were also to no avail. Still, I thank them.

On February 28, 2025, the supreme court, in a judgment in respect of about eight consolidated appeals concerning the political crisis in Rivers State, based on several grave unconstitutional acts and disregard of rule of law that have been committed by the Governor of Rivers State as shown by the evidence before it pronounced in very clear terms:

“a government cannot be said to exist without one of the three arms that make up the government of a state under the 1999 Constitution as amended. In this case the head of the executive arm of the government has chosen to collapse the legislature to enable him to govern without the legislature as a despot. As it is there is no government in Rivers State.”

The above pronouncement came after a catalogue of judicial findings of constitutional breaches against the Governor Siminalayi Fubara.

Going Forward in their judgment, and having found and held that 27 members of the House who had allegedly defected

“are still valid members of Rivers State House of Assembly and cannot be prevented from participating in the proceedings of that House by the 8th Respondent (that is, the Governor) in cohorts with four members”

The Supreme Court then made some orders to restore the state to immediate constitutional democracy. These orders include the immediate passing of an Appropriation Bill by the Rivers State House of Assembly which up till now has not been facilitated.

Some militants had threatened fire and brimstone against their perceived enemy of the governor who has up till now NOT disowned them.

Apart from that both the House and the governor have not been able to work together.

Both of them do not realise that they are in office to work together for the peace and good governance of the state.

The latest security reports made available to me show that between yesterday and today there have been disturbing incidents of vandalization of pipelines by some militant without the governor taking any action to curtail them. I have, of course given stern order to the security agencies to ensure safety of lives of the good people of Rivers State and the oil pipelines.

With all these and many more, no good and responsible President will standby and allow the grave situation to continue without taking remedial steps prescribed by the Constitution to address the situation in the state, which no doubt requires extraordinary measures to restore good governance, peace, order and security.

In the circumstance, having soberly reflected on and evaluated the political situation in Rivers State and the Governor and Deputy Governor of Rivers State having failed to make a request to me as President to issue this proclamation as required by section 305(5) of the 1999 Constitution as amended, it has become inevitably compelling for me to invoke the provision of section 305 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 as amended, to declare a state of emergency in Rivers State with effect from today, 18th March, 2025 and I so do.

By this declaration, the Governor of Rivers State, Mr Siminalayi Fubara, his deputy, Mrs Ngozi Odu and all elected members of the House of Assembly of Rivers State are hereby suspended for an initial period of six months.

In the meantime, I hereby nominate Vice Admiral Ibokette Ibas (Rtd) as Administrator to take charge of the affairs of the state in the interest of the good people of Rivers State. For the avoidance of doubt, this declaration does not affect the judicial arm of Rivers State, which shall continue to function in accordance with their constitutional mandate.

The Administrator will not make any new laws. He will, however, be free to formulate regulations as may be found necessary to do his job, but such regulations will need to be considered and approved by the Federal Executive Council and promulgated by the President for the state.

This declaration has been published in the Federal Gazette, a copy of which has been forwarded to the National Assembly in accordance with the Constitution. It is my fervent hope that this inevitable intervention will help to restore peace and order in Rivers State by awakening all the contenders to the constitutional imperatives binding on all political players in Rivers State in particular and Nigeria as a whole.

Long live a united, peaceful, secure and democratic Rivers State in particular and the Federal Republic of Nigeria as a whole.

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The Lagos State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party has lashed Dr Abdul-Azeez Adediran, popularly known as Jandor, for defecting to the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC ahead of 2027 general election.

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The PDP reacted to the news of Adediran’s defection to APC which he announced at a press conference on Monday in Lagos.

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The former PDP’s Governorship candidate in the 2023 general election had on March 3 tendered his resignation from the party, citing the lack of discipline and leadership betrayal in the party fold.

The leader of a movement – Lagos4Lagos Movement, was previous a member of APC before he defected to the PDP and contested governorship on the party’s platform before returning to the APC again.

Reacting to his defection in an interview with journalists on Monday, the Deputy Chairman of the PDP in Lagos, Tai Benedict, said Jandor was never “our own” and was allegedly planted by the APC to destabilise the PDP.
Benedict said, “He was never our own. He was an agent sent to our party to destroy our party. The very first time I saw him, I told him to explain – that you are an agent of the APC, sent to our party because they knew we had a bright chance to win that election.

“Although he denied it, eventually, I was vindicated. This was somebody who came to the party, and the first thing he did was to start accusing the leaders and the next thing he did was to disorganise a united party to the national level until he got the ticket of our party from the back.

“You know, it’s very unfortunate, very unfortunate. We have never had it so badly. But all I have to say is we thank God. We’re okay with his exit.

“He came, he singularly picked his running mate. It has never happened. He said because Funke (Akindele) had over three million followers on Instagram, that will make his victory (at the 2023 governorship poll) easier. But we had only 62,000 votes.”

“For me, I thank God that he has left our party. It’s not a good thing to lose membership in parties, I quite agree with that. It’s not good to lose your members to other parties. But there are some members that if they leave, you’ll be happy. One of such members is Jandor.”

The party’s publicity secretary, Seye Oladejo, in an interview with The PUNCH on Monday, said the APC was ready to work with Jandor.

Oladejo said, “Like all politicians, Jandor came to the party with ambition. At the time, that could be realised quickly on the platform of the conservatives, which has been rejected at the polls several times by the people of Lagos.

“So, now that he’s back, we’re happy to work with him. We appreciate the fact that Lagos has been better and safer in the hands of the progressives, who have enjoyed uninterrupted trust and confidence from the people.
“We believe in our party that there is sufficient opportunity for him, like many others, to contribute his quota to the continual success of our government and growth of our party.”

He said the party was expecting more politicians to defect to the APC.

“In the days ahead, we’re expecting more decamps as we approach the next election.”

Dismissing the PDP’s claim that the APC planted Jandor to destablise the opposition, Oladejo said, “It shows how inept ideas this so-called opposition is.”

“We’re talking about a party that’s perpetually in crisis. We’re talking about a party that can’t organise itself, and they want to govern. The electorates in Lagos are informed, they are sophisticated.

“They’re just looking for excuses to justify their incompetence, and the fact that they’re incapable of mobilising whatever modicum of support they have for election victory.”

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