•Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State
The Bauchi State governor, Bala Mohammed, has officially announced his defection to the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) along with members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) loyal to the Tanimu Turaki-led executives.
Mohammed announced the defection at the Bauchi Government House yesterday, flanked by the APM National Chairman, Yusuf Dantalle, and other party and government officials, reports Channels TV.
“After extensive consultation, we have taken a firm and strategic decision to join the Allied Peoples Movement (APM),” the Bauchi governor, 67, told the gathering.
“This is guided by one overriding objective: to secure victory in both states and continue to serve our people with utmost integrity, effectively mobilise our supporters and present a coherent and credible alternative to the people,” he said.
With the 2027 elections months away, the governor said he “cannot allow our people to run out without a credible and effective political platform”, hence the defection to the APM.
“Our duty is to provide energy and direction; at the same time, make sure that the opportunity provided to all of us is not diminished,” he said.
He thanked the PDP, the platform under which he was elected as governor in 2019 and re-elected in 2023, for the “important role it has played in our collective political journey”.
“It has been a platform through which we have found and contributed to the development of our state and our peer nation,” Mohammed said. “We remain grateful for this history and the opportunities provided.”
APM Welcomes Gov Mohammed
Dantalle later presented Governor Mohammed with his APM membership card with the party’s flag and logo: a tuber of cassava.
“I welcome you into the party, and I will start by giving you what qualifies you to be a member of the party: your membership card,” Dantalle said while also presenting him with an APM-branded cap.
The move came shortly after an expanded stakeholders’ meeting held behind closed doors. Until his defection, Mohammed was the chairman of the PDP’s Governors’ Forum.
His exit from the PDP ends months of speculations over the Bauchi governor’s political future amid the crisis rocking the opposition party.
Mohammed and his Oyo State counterpart, Seyi Makinde, were the only governors remaining in the PDP until yesterday’s defection.
Several weeks before the Bauchi governor’s move, the governor had met with chieftains of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) and officials of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) over talks of a possible defection.
But the talks did not yield fruit, leading the former FCT minister, who served in that position from April 8, 2010, to May 2015, to team up with the APM.
