Am not quitting APC, Tinubu vows; Buhari deceived the North with Islam says Junaid

Former governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, has vowed not to defect from the All Progressives Congress, APC, saying he would not abandon a house he helped to build to form another mega party. Tinubu’s declaration came as the Senator Modu Sheriff faction of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, vowed, yesterday, that it would not agree to the reported moves by the rival Ahmed Makarfi-led faction to transform the party through the inclusion of some political heavyweights from the APC and other parties.

Tinubu and former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar are among leading political stakeholders who have been mentioned in the formation of the mega party.

Meanwhile, the harmony of the Makarfi faction on the matter of the mega party was, yesterday, being tested after one of the leading enthusiasts of the faction, Chief Ebenezer Babatope, vowed to fight off the hegemony of the APC from within the PDP as it was.

Meantime, Second Republic member of the House of Representatives, Dr. Junaid Mohammed, yesterday, slammed the moves towards the formation of another mega party as another indication of the insincerity of the political class. He said President Muhammadu Buhari deceived the North using the toga of Islam, even as he dismissed the PDP as a party in death throes.

Speculations about Tinubu’s exit from the APC heightened after penultimate Saturday’s governorship election in Ondo State which was won by Chief Rotimi Akeredolu, the candidate backed by the mainstream of the party, led by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Tinubu had called for the cancellation of the primaries that produced Akeredolu as the candidate of the party on the claim that his emergence was fraught with irregularities. His call was, however, cavalierly snubbed by the national chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, leading to a blistering attack by Tinubu on Odigie-Oyegun.

Tinubu vows not to abandon APC Responding through a series of tweets yesterday, Tinubu said he would not “engage in destructive pettiness.”

“In our journey to national betterment, plans and policies will be made, then amended. Mistakes will occur and then corrected,” the former Lagos State governor said. “ Through it all, I, Asiwaju, will remain true to the progressive ideals that fuelled the creation of APC.

“I have devoted my political life to achieve what has been achieved. My heart is too much of the people, and my mind too fixed on establishing positive historic legacy… rather than engage in destructive pettiness.

“This government, APC, is for the betterment of the people and the national purpose is bigger and more important than any individual’s desires.”