How PDP offered me ‘over N300 million’ to dump APC – Senator

The All Progressives Congress (APC) senator representing Adamawa north, Binta Garba, has said she was offered “over N300 million” to dump her party ahead of the 2015 general elections.

Ms Garba, who spoke to journalists in Yola during her campaign ahead of the APC primaries in the state, said the Peoples Democratic Party, the ruling party at the time, made her the offer so she would help scuttle the chances of the current governor, Mohammed Bindow.

Mr Bindow and the APC won the 2015 governorship election as well as the three senatorial seats in Adamawa State.

Ms Garba said her refusal to accept the offer averted a crisis in the state’s chapter of the party.

The senator is aiming for another term at the National Assembly and will be squaring up against seven other contestants – all of them male for the APC ticket.

The contestants include Ahmed Gulak, a former Special Adviser on Political Matters to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan; Mamman Tahir, former Director General, Nigerian Law School; Abdullahi Belel, Executive Chairman, Adamawa State Primary Healthcare Development Agency; and Adamu Kamale, the House of Representative member representing Michika and Madagali Federal Constituency in the state.

Ms Garba reminded the party members that the perception of her as a ‘strong woman’ by most of the founding members of the APC played a key role in her emergence as first female chairperson of a major political party.

“Four years ago during the administration of former Governor Murtala Nyako, party stalwarts met, looking for whom it will give the responsibility of leading this new party,” she said.

“The members unanimously agreed that there was no better person who could better lead the party other than me. Their reason for choosing me, they said, was that I am a strong and fearless person who can speak out against injustice. These attributes they saw as very good for a new party, the APC that was just emerging following the merger.”

She said she has remained true to the confidence reposed in her by not betraying the stakeholders and members of the party.

“When I was chairman of the APC in the state, the Peoples Democratic Party approached me to ditch the party and the candidate of the party then (Bindow), who later became governor.

“They said he (Bindow) will not go anywhere and that I should leave the APC and work for the PDP and offered me not N100 million, not even N200millio nor even N300 million but far more than that. But I rejected the money and the offer and I told them that if I could not be bought during the administration of former president Olusegun Obasanjo, I don’t see how anybody will buy my conscience.”