By Ishaya Ibrahim
Former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, has denied reports that he has defected to the All Progressives (APC), a party he left a few months before the presidential election.
Dogara had said his reason for ditching the APC was in protest of the party’s Muslim/Muslim ticket which saw Bola Tinubu and Kashim Shettima clinching the party ticket during the June 8, 2022 convention. The duo later emerged as the winner of the election held on February 25.
Dogara’s rumoured move to the APC was when he was recently spotted with the APC governorship candidate for Bauchi State, former Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar (rtd).
But Dogara denied the move, as per reporting by Daily Post: “It’s complicated. I am supporting candidates, not parties.”
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Dogara is believed to be strong in his constituency of Bauchi which saw him help the PDP’s Bala Mohammed to defeat an incumbent in 2019. He, however, fell out with Mohammed.
In the just concluded National Assembly election, and even as a PDP chieftain, Dogara helped one of his protégé in the APC, Jafaru Gambo Leko, to win a House of Representatives seat in Bauchi. in the February 25 National Assembly election.
The young politician won the Bogoro/Dass/Tafawa Balewa Federal Constituency seat, which Dogara occupied from 2007 to 2019.
“They procured thugs to attack us and stole BVAS from some polling units, but regardless, a protégé of the one they wanted to forcibly retire will succeed him.
“We took a righteous stance based on justice, fairness and accommodation for all regardless of tribe/creed and the God of justice showed up,” Dogara tweeted after Leko’s victory.”
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