Former ADC candidates join APC as chairman defends northern projects
Former African Democratic Congress candidates who withdrew from northern State House of Assembly contests have joined Nigeria’s governing All Progressives Congress. APC chairman Nentawe Yilwatda welcomed them and warned that restoring fuel subsidies could reduce funding for roads, gas, fertiliser, transport and student-loan programmes in the North.
Former candidates of the African Democratic Congress who withdrew from State House of Assembly contests in northern Nigeria have defected to the All Progressives Congress, the ruling party said on Monday. The delegation was led by Princess Aslam Aliyu, known as Gimbiyar Kauran Namoda. Mohammed Hassan, an ADC candidate from Zamfara State, said the group was joining the APC to support President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda ahead of the 2027 elections.
“We are not here merely to change the political platform,” Hassan said, according to Punch. “We have come to work; we have come to contribute.” APC national chairman Nentawe Yilwatda welcomed the defectors and urged them to return to their states and local governments to mobilise support. He told them to focus on strengthening polling units, which he said ultimately determine elections.
Yilwatda also criticised opposition pledges to restore the fuel subsidy, asking how the policy would be financed without suspending government projects. He said subsidy restoration could affect road construction and other programmes in the North. The chairman cited work on the Abuja-Kano and Kano-Maiduguri corridors, as well as roads linking Jos and Akwanga, Sokoto and Kebbi, Kano and Daura, and Zaria and Danja.
He also mentioned projects in several other northern states. Yilwatda said gas, fertiliser, compressed natural gas transport initiatives and student loans were benefiting people in the region. Tinubu removed the fuel subsidy at his inauguration on May 29, 2023.
Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar has pledged to restore it if elected, saying that would ease the impact of its removal.
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