Just in: Mama Taraba, 7 lawmakers, APC leaders defect to UDP

Saturday, September 29, 2018 3:57 pm

Hajia Alhassan displaying the membership card of her new party, the UDP,

Hours after the news broke that she has resigned from the cabinet of President Muhammadu Buhari and has dumped the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, Hajia Aisha Alhassan, former minister of Women Affairs and Social Development has joined the United Democratic Party, UDP.

While announcing this on her twitter handle, the former minister said she joined her new party with 7 members of Taraba State House of Assembly elected on the platform of APC as well as all members of the executives APC from 169 wards of Taraba State.

She tweeted: “I have officially JOINED my next POLITICAL PARTY with 7 state Assembly Members, all @APCNigeria executives from 169 wards of Taraba State. All 16 local Government exco’s of APC All states executives of APC, we are now in UDP”

Alhassan had resigned her appointment and also withdrawn her membership of APC in separate letters to the Presidency and her Sarkin-Dawaki ward of the APC in Jalingo, Taraba State which were made public on Saturday morning.

Alhassan attributed her action to “the unfair treatment and grave injustice” meted to her by the party.

Both letters were dated Sept. 29, 2018, with the resignation letter delivered to the Presidency, while the one notifying the party of her withdrawal of membership was personally delivered to the chairman of her ward, on Saturday.

The APC membership withdrawal letter titled: “Notification of withdrawal as APC member”, Alhassan recalled that she purchased the nomination form to seek the party’s ticket to contest the Taraba governorship seat.

“I completed and submitted the form and later presented myself for screening, but to my utter dismay, I was declared unqualified. No reason was given as to why I was disqualified.

“I feel I was unfairly treated by the National Working Committee of the APC.

“I feel that grave injustice was done to me. Because of that, I have withdrawn my membership of the party and hereby return the membership card issued to me,” she stated.

The minister, who contested Taraba governorship election in 2015, was on Wednesday disqualified from re-contesting the Taraba governorship election on the APC ticket in 2019 by the party’s Governorship Screening Committee.

Mr Adams Oshiomhole, the APC national chairman while giving reasons on Friday in Abuja why the minister was not cleared to contest the party’s ticket at its governorship primary, said she had not been a loyal member.

Oshiomhole said the party could not tolerate those who played anti-party activities within its ranks, adding that the minister judging from her actions, had not been completely loyal to the party.

He said after reviewing utterances from the minister and following her obvious relationship with one of the PDP presidential aspirants, the APC National Working Committee (NWC) had no option than to disqualify her.

“She had issues that have to do with party loyalty. Our Constitution is clear and it dictates that to contest elections or even hold office in the APC, you must be loyal to the party in every material concern.

“From all she had said in the past and even her comments and general attitude during the screening, the NWC reviewed everything taken together and we arrived at the conclusion that she does not possess the level of loyalty the APC requires for her to contest elections on our platform.”

Oshiomhole added that the minister knew why she was being denied from using the APC platform to contest the Taraba governorship election in 2019.