I have no plan to follow Atiku out of APC — Gov. Bindow

Governor Jibrilla Bindow has said he has no immediate plans follow Atiku Abubakar out of the ruling All Progressives Congress.

The Adamawa governor said his relationship with the former vice president would remain cordial and mutually beneficial for the foreseeable future.

“The governor was elected under the banner of APC and will continue to remain as APC governor,” Adamawa State Commissioner for Information, Ahmed Sajoh, told PREMIUM TIMES Saturday.

Mr. Sajoh said the APC national leadership, which has reportedly been unsettled by Mr. Atiku’s exit Friday morning, should exercise no fear or apprehension.

Mr. Atiku, who was the vice president from 1999-2007, cited poor governance and the party’s shortcomings  for his resignation from the ruling party.

He said APC had failed to deliver on its promises to Nigerians who have long been desperate for improved economic interventions.

Mr. Atiku, a founding member of the Peoples Democratic Party, joined the APC in early 2014, barely a few months after the party was established to challenge the then-ruling APC.

The APC has welcomed the development in a backhanded reaction to PREMIUM TIMES Friday afternoon, admitting on the one hand that Mr. Atiku’s exit was a big loss while recognising the politician’s rights to pursue his personal ambition on the other.

Mr. Atiku did not immediately say which party he’ll move to next, but suggestions are rife that he’d concluded plans to join the PDP, which has been openly courting him in recent months.

The spinning rumour mill also has it that Mr. Atiku’s departure would trigger a wave of defections from the APC to PDP across the country.

Mr. Bindow, widely seen as Mr. Atiku’s protégé, has been amongst the names of top APC defectors being bandied around in political grapevine. His name has popped up alongside that of the Minister of Women Affairs, Aisha Alhassan, who had since pledged loyalty to Mr. Atiku and his political choices.

But Mr. Sajoh said neither his principal nor his cabinet members were set to follow Mr. Atiku, even as he assured that their relationship with the former vice president would remain unblemished.

“The relationship would not be affected in any way,” Mr. Sajoh told PREMIUM TIMES by telephone. “The former vice-president respects the governor as the number one citizen of the state; the governor respects the former vice president as a prominent son of the state.”