Aminu Tambuwal, governor of Sokoto state, has defected from the All Progressives Congress (APC) to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
This comes less than 24 hours after Senate President Bukola Saraki and Abdulfatah Ahmed, governor of Kwara state, left the APC for PDP.
Bolaji Abdullahi, spokesman of the ruling party, has also resigned from the APC.
Addressing his supporters in Sokoto on Wednesday, the governor said the ruling party had failed to meet the expectations of the masses.
“Politicians and political leaders, groups and group leaders, stakeholders in the development of our state and our nation, fellow indigenes of Sokoto State and citizens of our great country, members of the press, ladies and gentlemen. It is with gratitude to Almighty Allah, our Sustainer that I address you on a matter of great importance to our nation at this auspicious moment in our political history. I stand before you with a heavy heart, wishing I had cheery words of progress, instead of the sad report that I am constrained to give you on the situation of our dear nation,” he said.
“The struggle for democracy is one that began with our fight for independence as a sovereign nation. To this end, the blood, freedom and other liberties of our past heroes and contemporary veterans were sacrificed. The current dispensation began in 1999, as the watershed of our toil, which granted to us a democratic system that is striving to evolve and survive.
“As the speaker of the house of representatives then, I left my comfort zone to be involved in the struggle for the enthronement of purposeful leadership for the citizens of our dear country.
“Now, almost four years into what ought to be a new order as desired and elected by Nigerians, the nation is unfortunately going through the most difficult and precarious times, since the civil war; with ethno, religious and regional distrust at its highest ebb.”
