The attorney-general and justice commissioner in Jigawa State under former governor Sule Lamido says he is quitting the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) with thousands of his supporters in the state.
Yakubu Ruba made the announcement on Wednesday, amidst a crowd of his supporters in Dutse, the state capital.
He said since the 2015 general elections, he had been committed to the progress of PDP in the state thinking the party would provide him a platform to realise his political dream.
“I believe that posterity can affirm as to the extent of my commitment to the party and its members. However, due to personal reasons and the conduct of other party members to my support within the party, I realised that my political dream cannot be realised in PDP,” Mr Ruba told journalists.
“Where it comes to a stage where leaders of the party do not have confidence in you and you believe that you have confidence in yourself, it is a challenge on you to explore other avenue.
“I am old enough to make a decision for myself and my supporters that is why I formally resigned my membership of the PDP to APC with over ten thousand supporters. It’s a challenge but let us meet at the polling units,” Mr Ruba said.
He further explained that he was motivated to join the APC by the achievements of President Mohammadu Buhari and Governor Mohammad Badaru of Jigawa in the areas of financial prudence and infrastructure development in the zone.
Dahiru Yakubu from Kafin-Hausa Local Government Area where Mr Ruba hails from told PREMIUM TIMES that they were following him to the APC because the former commissioner was cheated in the PDP.
“You can imagine now in Jigawa, PDP has turned into family affairs where Sule Lamido has surrendered all the party structures to his son instead of learned people like Barrister Ruba,” Mr. Yakubu said.
Mr Ruba served under Mr Lamido as attorney-general for four years and is currently the lead defence counsel to ex-commissioners in the administration facing corruption charges.
He led the defence of Mr. Lamido in court when the former governor successfully defended himself over a four-count charge of inciting disturbance, disturbance of public peace, defamation of character and criminal intimidation brought against him by the state government.
Commenting on decision of Mr Ruba to exit the party, PDP chairman in the state, Salisu Mahmuda, said it is a great loss to the party but also expressed hope that the decision was not final.
“I believe that he took the decision of leaving PDP in anger. Later on, we will convince him to reconsider his decision to return to PDP.
“PDP in Jigawa can’t afford to lose a personality like Mr Ruba going by his antecedents in the party and it is worthy of note for him to understand that even in Islam, it is wrong for someone to take a decision when he is upset. I assure you we have raised a delegation to meet Mr. Ruba, he will come back to PDP,” said Mr Mahmuda.
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