From Ali Abare Abubakar, Lafia
Following intense political negotiations,the Deputy Governor of Nasarawa state,Dameshi Barau Luka has finally defected from the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) to the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The embattled deputy governor who was at the state secretariat of the PDP yesterday,presented a letter to the state PDP chairman, Yunana Iliya,announcing his decision to return to the party.
In a brief ceremony held at the conference hall of the PDP secretariat in Lafia,half-filled with rancorous youths who intermittently interrupted the proceedings, Barau Luka announced his decision to return to the PDP.
Earlier in a welcome speech, the state PDP chairman, Yunana Iliya,described the defection of the deputy governor as historic,stressing that his return to the party could be likened to the Biblical children of Israel that were taken to captivity but who sought to return home.
He noted that the PDP is gaining popularity with several politicians who left the party previously now returning,including Sen Solomon Ewuga,Reps Dauda Kigbu and David Ombugadu.
In a press briefing shortly after presenting his letter of intent to return to the PDP, Luka alleged that the reason he was suspended from the APC was because he attended a Church service in the presence of President Goodluck Jonathan at the Living Faith Church in Goshen.
He alleged further that the reason given by the party suggesting he criticized the official stance of the APC for its national assembly members to block all executive bills was merely a veil to cover the actual reason he was suspended.
“The purported suspension was hurriedly arranged because I was out of the country and targeted at humiliating me”, he stated.
The deputy governor claimed that not only did the suspension failed to follow the conventional procedures,”it was fraudulent in its entirety since peoples signatures were forged.”
While denying that he betrayed his boss, Governor Umaru Tanko Al-makura by defecting to the PDP, Luka said he was yet to register as a member of the APC.
“My disinterest is not unconnected with the attitude of exclusion exhibited by the leadership of the party with the active collaboration or support of the Governor”, he further alleged.
The deputy governor maintained that as a result of the foregoing,he will no longer pursue what he described as the culture of political uncertainty,politics of exclusion and shadow chasing in his political journey.
“Consequently, I and my teeming supporters across the state have decided to move over to the PDP with immediate effect”, he declared.
Meanwhile, only two persons, Philip Yakwari, former general manager of the state owned Nasarawa Transport Company, forced to resign by the PDP dominated state assembly on account of incompetence and one other,returned to the PDP alongside the deputy governor.
