Adamawa: Gundiri dumps APC for PDP

From Umar Dankano, Yola

As the 2015 general elections is fast approaching, political alignments and realignments have started taking place with a former gubernatorial candidate on the platform of tne defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and also a stalwart of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Adamawa, Engineer Markus Gundiri, formally defected to the People’s Democratic Party (PDP)

Gundiri who made the declaration yesterday at ADIP hotel in Yola said his decision to bid APC a final farewell followed the undemocratic posture of the leadership of the party in the state.

He added that his decision to dump the party was sequel to consultations with his supporters who collectively endorsed the cause as they realized that they may not be treated with justice and fairness as it appears that their goodwill was misconstrued as a sign of weakness.

“The state interim management committee was constituted without due recognition and respect for the interest of the senior partners in the coalition (ACN).” He decried

“The leadership of the party was conceded to the chief executive of the state against the will of the members of the legacy parties at the state level but was dictated by the national executive committee of the APC which was dictatorial and undemocratic.

“The new PDP that defected to APC refused to dissolve the illegal task team force it put on ground before their entry into APC in spite of repeated appeals to do so by stakeholders as earlier agreed.

“The chairman also used the same task force to hijack membership registration materials to the extent that some people had to register outside their units.

“Trained registration supervisors were not allowed to handle the registration exercise in some areas as demanded by law while it was out rightly cancelled in some local government councils.

“Up to the time of this press briefing, the allowances intended to be paid to the local government and ward supervisors who carried out the exercise was still outstanding.

“Several efforts made to make the state government to look into this act of breach of social contract were ignored” Gundiri noted.

While responding the Interim Public Relations Officer of APC in Adamawa, Alhaji Salihu Baba Ahmed said as far as APC is concerned, Gundiri was still a member as he has not formally withdrawn his membership of the party.

“For us to acknowledge his defection, he has to go back to his wardmand tender his membership card or even come to the state interim committee and tender the membership card.” He explained

Ahmed added that Gundiri has never tendered any complaint before the state interim committee saying that there is more to his defection than meet the eyes.