Ex-Speaker Yakubu Dogara dumps PDP, returns to APC

A former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, has defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), returning to his former party, the All Progressives Congress (APC).

An aide to the former speaker confirmed the development to PREMIUM TIMES on Friday evening.

The acting Chairman of the APC, Mai Mala Buni, also later confirmed the development after he led Mr Dogara to meet President Muhammadu Buhari at the State House, Friday.

Mr Buni, who is also Yobe State Governor, said President Buhari already welcomed the former speaker back to the APC. The governor said the conditions that prompted Mr Dogara to leave the ruling party had now been eradicated.

Mr Dogara declined to be interviewed by reporters, saying he would speak on the development at a later date.

Mr Dogara had in 2018 left the APC for the PDP after having political confrontation for about two years with the former governor of Bauchi State, Mohammed Abubakar.

The former speaker had only recently headed a screening panel of the PDP primary for the Ondo State governorship election and it is unclear why he is leaving the opposition party he joined in September 2018.

Mr Dogara had on January 29, 2019, formally announced his defection from the APC to the PDP, although it had been clear since September 2018 that he was decamping to the PDP. He had in September 2018 visited the PDP national secretariat where he submitted his nomination forms for the 2019 House of Representatives election.

It was on the PDP platform that he was re-elected to represent his Bogoro/Dass/Tafawa Balewa federal constituency of Bauchi State.