A former governor of Sokoto State and chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Alhaji Attahiru Bafarawa, yesterday declared that the governing All Progressives Congress (APC), is the “mother of corruption”.
Bafarawa, who made the declaration in an exclusive interview with Daily Trust in Sokoto, said APC is the “architect of the enduring rift between it and some of its top-notch members”, which, according to him, was causing the country immense loss of progress.
“APC government says it is fighting corruption, but it is the mother of corruption; it has been the mother of corruption since the day it opened its gates to those five governors from the new PDP”, he said.
Mr. Bafarawa was making reference to the defection in 2014 of then Governors Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers), Rabiu Kwankwaso (Kano), Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko (Sokoto), Murtala Nyako (Adamawa) and Abdulfatah Ahmed (Kwara) from the PDP to APC.
He accused the ‘rebel’ former governors of buying their way into the APC with N100million each and thereafter turned all the rules in their favour.
Bafarawa, who was a founding father of the APC, later dumped the party for the PDP after one of the defectors, Wamakko, was made leader of the party in Sokoto State, ahead of him.
“When they (five governors) came into the APC, they were warmly received because they had the money to contribute N100 million each.
“When I, a founding member and acting chairman of the party’s constitution drafting committee queried why they were expressly allowed entry, I was bluntly told they had money to give. I then offered to also contribute N100 million but my own contribution was rejected.
“Those five governors entered APC to corrupt the party, and they succeeded in doing so. This is why I say APC is the mother of corruption”, he said.
Bafarawa added that “I foresaw that they would hijack the party and attempt to do whatever they want. If they are allowed to do whatever they want, there will be problem in the politics of the country; if they are not allowed, which is the situation now, there will be a rift between them and the government, they will be disloyal and impudent to the government, and this will cost the country immense problem in terms of progress”.
The two-term governor and former presidential candidate of the defunct Democratic Peoples Party, DPP, insisted that the problem in the APC started from the time some of its founding fathers were ejected and the structures of the party handed over to the newly admitted governors, who he alleged, joined the party for a purpose.
He recalled that the constitution of the party was drafted in his Abuja residence, and there was nowhere it was mentioned that “sitting governors should be the leaders of the party in their respective states”.
Bafarawa, who said he shared the same political ideology with President Muhammadu Buhari, advised the president to open his doors for constructive criticisms.
