Aisha Jummai Alhassan, popularly known as Mama Taraba has decamped from United Democratic Party (UDP) to main opposition party, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Aisha Alhassan, a former Minister of Women Affairs in the first tenure of President Muhammadu Buhari had left All Progressives Congress (APC) to UDP.
FIRST REPORTS reports that she was screened out from contesting the APC 2019 governorship Primaries election in Taraba for allegedly declaring loyalty to Atiku Abubakar.
Irked by the APC’s National Working Committee’s decision to screen her out, the 59 year old decamped to UDP on September 28, 2018.
She however contested the gubernatorial poll on the platform of UDP, but lost to Darius Ishaku of the PDP.
Naija News reports that Mama Taraba made the announcement on Saturday, September 14, 2019, during a stakeholders meeting of the UDP in Jalingo.
She said her decision to join PDP was based on popular demand from her followers and supporters in UDP.
Alhassan told Journalists after a UDP stakeholders meeting in Jalingo that majority of her supporters in the 168 wards of Taraba had encouraged her to shift base to the PDP.
She said that the stakeholders meeting, which lasted till midnight on Saturday, drew participation from all those who contested for various political offices under the platform of the UDP, executive members of the party from the ward to state levels and other respected elders.
Alhassan added that more than 80 per cent of respondents in an opinion poll conducted by a committee headed Alhaji Abdulmumini Vaki, a former PDP chairman in the state, which covered the 16 LGAs, suggested that she should move to PDP.
The former minister said, based on the outcome of the opinion poll, she had no option than to go by the decision of majority members of the UDP.
According to the former minister, “I cannot go against the decision of the popular opinions of my supporters”, adding that she was glad that the committee did not suggest the APC as an option.
A communiqué issued at the end of the stakeholders meeting in Jalingo on Saturday night, recommended that two committees be set up immediately to fast track the defection process.
According the communiqué which was signed by the state UDP Chairman, Alhaji Hassan Chul, the first committee is to visit the national leadership of the UDP in Abuja to express the appreciation of supporters of the former minister for providing her the platform to run for the 2019 governorship election.
The communique added that the second committee is to arrange a meeting with PDP leadership in Taraba to work out modalities for the former minister’s official return to the PDP.
Alhassan contested and won the election for the senatorial seat of Taraba North in 2011 under the PDP before defecting to APC in 2015.
Her latest defection is seen as a big boost for PDP as the party hopes to clinch power from APC at the National level.
