…As Aisha Alhassan meets Buhari
no plan to dump APC
By Johnbosco Agbakwuru

ABUJA – GOVERNOR of Adamawa State and political son of the former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, Senator Jibrila Bindo, Tuesday said that despite the resignation of his political godfather from the All Progressives Congress, APC, he will stay and die in the party.

Jibrila Bindo

This is as the Minister of Women Affairs, Senator Aisha Jumai Alhassan fondly called Mama Taraba who met with President Muhammadu Buhari in closed-door at the State House, declined to talk to State House correspondents who had sought her comments on the resignation of Atiku from the APC.

Senator Alhassan who recently said that she would vote for her political ally in any election even if President Buhari was contesting the 2019 election, is one of the ardent loyalists of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar .

Speaking to journalists after meeting privately with the President, the Adamawa State governor said that he came to the State House to brief the President on security situations in his state.

He said, “I came to brief Mr President on the security situation in Adamawa state in view of what happened couple of weeks ago. So, basically that is why am here.”

When asked whether he was going to pitch tent with Atiku who recently left APC, he said, “First of all the former Vice President is more than mature enough to decide whatever he wants to decide for himself. As far as I am concerned, I am one of the founding fathers of APC when I was in the Senate with the current Senate President.

“We were the ones that worked very hard to ensure all members of the National Assembly that we agreed to move to APC and we did. So, I don’t see any reason why the house I helped to build I will leave it, I am in APC for the rest of my life period.”

On whether it would not affect his relationship with the Vice President, he said, “Not only Waziri (Atiku), every elder in Adamawa state as far as I am concerned I regard them as my parents or my father, so Waziri remains somebody I respect as a father or any other elder in the state.”

It will be recalled that the governor had recently corroborated with the Kaduna state governor, Nasir El-Rufai in the backing of President Buhari for 2019 election.

But Senator Bindo said, “Yes, I was fortunate enough, a very rare opportunity, I was the first governor to endorse our President because as far as we people of the North East are concerned, we will remain loyal to our President who is highly committed to the fight of insurgency in the North East , we will remain loyal to our President.”

When asked whether he was disowning the Waziri Adamawa for resigning from APC as two of them no longer belong to the same political party, he also replied, “I have told you, he is more than mature enough to decide what he wants to do.”

On what could be the political implications of the Atiku’s exit from the APC, in Adamawa state, the governor said, “Well APC is strong, we have 25 members of House of Assembly. 24 out of 25 in Adamawa State House of Assembly are APC, all the three Senators are APC, all the House of Reps including Adamu Kamir who have moved to APC, so we are strong and will continue to be strong.”