By Yemi Monday
The first Commissioner for Youths and Sports Development and later Communications in the present All Progressive Congress (APC)-led administration of Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya, Julius Ishaya Lepes, has dumped the party and joined the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP).
The development therefore brightens the chances of Khamisu Ahmad Mailantarki, gubernatorial candidate of the NNPP in Gombe State.
Julius Ishaya Lepes, one of the founding members of the APC in the State and a grassroots mobilizer, was in the kitchen cabinet in the government of Inuwa Yahaya, before he left the APC.
The former Commissioner who joined the NNPP after meeting its gubernatorial candidate, Khamisu Mailantarki, said that he decided to defect to the NNPP after wide consultations from his followers and lovers across the State.
He noted that both APC and PDP have failed the people, hence the need for a fresh breath.
The NNPP new entrant alleged that after joining the PDP, the leadership of the party had sidelined him from all affairs of the party despite being a critical stakeholder and Ex-Commissioner in the State.
According to him, “I have consulted wisely with my followers, admirers, friends and families who felt we should leave the PDP to join this party, NNPP and to work to rescue our State from the neglect and bad governance of the APC.”
In the same vein, former Gombe State PDP Chairman, Shuaibu Baba Sabulu and thousands of other members of the party including key party stalwarts have decamped to the NNPP.
The NNPP gubernatorial candidate, Khamisu Ahmad Mailantarki, party Chairman and other executives and hundreds of supporters were in Billiri Local Government Area (LGA) to receive the decampees, among whom were Yila Dankuka, a former Deputy Chairman, Billiri LGA, Phillips Bataliya and Hon Muhammad Balas.
Others include current and former party LGA and Wards officials, former Councillors as well as women and youth groups.
Receiving the defectors, Mailantarki assured them that they would be carried along in all the activities of the party, especially now that the campaigns will formally commence soon.
He urged them to garner more support and promote the party and its candidates in all the nooks and crannies of the state, stressing that it is only through grassroots mobilization and voters sensitization the NNPP can uproot and defeat the failed ruling APC in the State.
Speaking while presenting the NNPP membership card to the new members, the chairman of the State chapter of the NNPP, Maikano Abdullahi, assured the defectors of equal opportunities in the party, stating that the NNPP would always uphold the tenets justice, fairness and equity.
Speaking on behalf of the decampees, Hon. Baba Sabulu said they decided to leave the PDP and joined the NNPP because the State needs a better leadership which according to him, Mailantarki can give.
“We all decided to quit and join the NNPP so that we can have better leadership in Gombe State.
“We see Mailantarki as a better alternative for Gombe. He possesses the requisite character and capacity to rescue Gombe State from the misrule of the APC. He has always been saying the right things and has done the right things in the past,” he said.
