APC, party without membership – Bafarawa

Alhaji Atahiru Bafarawa, a former Governor of Sokoto State, on Wednesday in Abuja said that the All Progressives Congress remains a political party without membership, six months after its formation.
Bafarawa, who was until now a chieftain of the APC, spoke at the National Secretariat of the PDP in Abuja where he formally defected to the PDP.
Bafarawa, who was at the secretariat with his supporters, challenged the leaders of the APC to show Nigerians the party’s membership register to debunk his claim.
He said: “It is sad that up till this moment, the APC has no membership register.
“Nobody has APC’s membership card after six months of their merging.”
According to him, the APC is only operating on the pages of newspapers.
He, therefore, urged the National Chairman of the PDP, Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu, to immediately allow the party to embark on mass membership drive nationwide.
This, he said, would reveal that the PDP was alive across the country, “unlike the lame duck APC, which cannot boast of a single member with its membership card after six months of its registration”.
The former governor said that he was defecting from the APC to PDP with his followers in Sokoto State and across the nation to contribute his quota to the development of the PDP and the country.
He added: “We are not joining PDP because it is a ruling party or because we are looking for appointments or because we are looking for material things.
“We are joining PDP because we want to continue to contribute our own quota to the development of the party and the country.”
Bafarawa said that several PDP leaders, including former President Olusegun Obasanjo, late Chief Solomon Lar and Chief Tony Anenih, had made frantic efforts to woo him into the PDP with mouth watering offers.
He said that their offers were, however, rejected because he was not interested in material things but the development of the country as a whole.
He disclosed that the day Muazu was made the new national chairman of the PDP, he knew his days were numbered in the APC.
Bafarawa, who was a former presidential aspirant on the platform of the Democratic Peoples Party, said he decided to join the PDP based on his long standing relationship with Mu’azu.
He advised the new PDP national chairman to lead the party based on its manifesto and constitution if he must excel in the party without having any problem.
He urged the PDP chairman to arrange for President Goodluck Jonathan to visit Sokoto State to receive the new members into the PDP fold.
In his response, Mu’azu expressed happiness for having Bafarawa in the PDP fold.
He consequently directed that the PDP membership card be given to him.