Former director of Governor El-Rufai’s 2015 campaign reportedly dumped the APC – He allegedly announced his resignation from the ruling party in a letter sent to his ward’s party chairman – Ibrahim reportedly described APC as a sinking ship, saying it has failed to deliver the dividends of democracy to the people.
Jaafaru Ibrahim, a prominent member of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kaduna state, has reportedly withdrawn his membership of the party. Ibrahim who was the zonal campaign director of Nasir el-Rufai, governor of Kaduna, during the 2015 election, announced his resignation from the APC in a letter to chairman of the party in his ward.
He is from Kwabai ward in Zaria local government area of the state. Ibrahim described APC as a sinking ship, saying it has failed to deliver the dividends of democracy to the people of Kaduna and Nigerians.
He said remaining in APC would be tantamount to committing “political suicide”. Ibrahim allegedly accused Governor El-Rufai of abandoning the party’s manifesto and setting personal goals and objectives, which according to him, are detrimental to the future of the party.
Between June and December 2015, Ibrahim, a legal practitioner, was the interim management committee chairman of Zaria. “Recent developments before, during and after the party congresses in Kaduna state are further confirmation of our fears that some of us are not wanted in the party, such that our continuous stay and in-house struggles and skirmishes had not only stagnated but rendered the party comatose due to the fact that the worst elements, crooks, swindlers as well as the most selfish have taken control of both the party and the government, making the future of the APC uncertain,” the letter read.
“The state is mired in violence and people are being killed on a daily basis, criminality, rural banditry, cyclical atrocities between political classes, kidnapping and robbery are taking their toll on the lives and livelihood of citizens of the state rendering the constitutional provisions that the Governor as the chief security officer should provide for the security and welfare of the people an empty rhetoric. “Moreover, the Governor has woefuly failed to address problems such as unemployment, abject poverty, hunger and housing and deliver on its promises as contained in its abandoned manifesto.
“The Kaduna State Government had since lost focus, commitment, zeal, determination, culminating in poor governance as a result of transparency, integrity, due process and accountability deficit. “Our continued advise both privately and publicly for an improvement on both party administration and the state has been met with stiff opposition over which we have been called names in vituperative and unprintable languages. “In view of the above therefore, it is obvious that APC in Kaduna state in particular, is like a sinking ship, hence every discernable mind has to scamper into safety as in this circumstances. I am not ready to commit political suicide hence it is with greatest regret that I have formally announce the withdrawal of membership from the party which we laboured to establish forthwith.”
Some of the APC chieftains in the state who have left the party are Yaro Makama Rigachiku, Isa Ashiru, Jagaba Adams Jagaba and Hakeem Baba Ahmed, chief of staff to Senate President Bukola Saraki.
Meanwhile, a new faction has broken away from the APC and has called itself the Reformed All Progressives Congress (R-APC) According to Sahara Reporters, the new faction is the same as the new Peoples Democratic Party which joined the APC in the build-up to the 2015 general elections.
Buba Galadima who is the former national secretary of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) and an ally to President Muhammadu Buhari was named the new chairman of the group.