As the forthcoming local government councils’ election in Bauchi State approaches, major opposition parties in the state have met to devise possible ways to defeat the ruling Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP. The parties are the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) and All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP). Speaking at separate interviews in Bauchi over the weekend, the Chairman of CPC, Alhaji Aliyu Saidu and that of ANPP, Alhaji Sani Shehu , as well as the spokesman of the ACN, Nasiru Ibrahim Darazo, confirmed the development.
Sa’idu of CPC said: “During our meeting, we have decided that in each local government council, we will support a popular candidate from any political party to contest against the PDP candidate in order to break the tradition of continuous manipulation by the PDP and sweep all seats during council polls.”
On his part, Shehu of ANPP said: “Even though we resolved to support a candidate from any political party, that will be after the merger process is completed. We want a popular candidate which we will all support. We are aware that differences may occur but we are determined to succeed.”
ACN spokesman Darazo explained that “Although we held talks at different times, APGA later applied to join us and we have accommodated them under the current arrangement.”
In his reaction to the alliance, Assistant Publicity Secretary of the PDP state chapter, Alhaji Bashir Bukar Rimin Zayam, said: “We heard about their plans but we are ahead of them because the whole Bauchi state is entirely a PDP state , and the party has done a lot to provide the dividends of democracy to the citizenry and we have the support of the entire people of Bauchi state.”
“Since Politics is all about people, we believe we have the support of all Bauchi people, we are determined to beat them hands down, even though we know they will cry at the end as usual, you know politicians don’t accept defeat easily, but we have no fear we will defeat them and we will successfully cross the bridge when we reach there,” he added.
No date has been fixed for the election yet, but the state government and the State Independent Electoral Commission (BASIEC) have indicated their readiness to conduct the council polls in the coming months.
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