Former Reps Speaker, Dogara Dumps APC For PDP.


The former Speaker of the Federal House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara on Monday dumped the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) and returned to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the political platform under which he presided over Nigeria's Green Chamber.

The development is coming barely 48 hours after Dogara, who is from the Northern Christian minority and some aggrieved Northern APC leaders, declared support for the Presidential candidate of the PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.

This followed several months of political permutations as the Northern Leaders Consultative Forum (NLCF), including the Christian leaders in the All Progressive Congress (APC) in Northern Nigeria on Friday formally adopted Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, as their preferred presidential candidate for the 2023 general election.

The Group said the PDP standard bearer was adopted following the resolve of the Northern Christian leaders to work with their Muslim counterparts to adopt one of the presidential candidates in a bid to defeat the same-faith presidential ticket of the APC.

Yakubu Dogara was received back to the PDP this Monday during the presidential campaign rally of the party’s presidential candidate and former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar in Lagos State, Nigeria's commercial capital.

The ex House of Reps Speaker has returned to his original party after the Northern Leaders Consultative Forum, claimed the Muslim-Muslim ticket of the APC was a minus to the ruling party.

The Dogara-led NLCF claimed that the decision was based on the report of her Technical Committee which took consideration of the existing structure of the PDP, capacity of the candidates, evidence of national penetration, religious and ethnic balance, among other factors.

The Northern leaders group noted that it was observed that the APC and PDP are almost at par in terms of political structure, but the compounding albatross on the neck of APC is the: “unfortunate self-inflicted divisive same-faith-ticket which cannot guarantee the desired peace, unity and cohesion in Nigeria", a political decision that has been kicked against by a large population of Nigerians, especially of the Northern christian population.