UPDATED: Sen. Elisha Abbo joins APC

The Senator representing Adamawa North, Elisha Abbo, has defected from the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC.

Senate President Ahmad Lawan announced Mr Abbo’s defection in a letter he read during Wednesday’s plenary session.

In the letter, Mr Abbo explained that his decision to defect to the APC is because of the mismanagement of the PDP in Adamawa State by Governor Umaru Fintiri.

Sequel to the announcement of his defection, Mr Abbo said he decamped because of his state governor, Ahmadu Fintiri.

Mr Abbo made the disclosure to journalists during a briefing on Wednesday, after the defection.

According to him, he left the PDP because of the “mismanagement” of the party’s issues by Governor Fintri.

The governor’s negligence, he said, had led to a crisis in internal democracy in the party which made it suffer in the last one year since the governor assumed office.

He said he was never overwhelmed by the governor, whom he described as insecure.

He also said he could not be overwhelmed because he fought hard to bring the governor into power.

“If there is no crisis, how do you have another party in the PDP? There is a crisis in the party in Adamawa State and the governor is the cause of the crisis. He is insecure.

“I cannot be overwhelmed because I know how hard I fought to bring Governor Fintiri to power.

“Go and check the record, I am not boasting. I am the main man that fought to bring Fintiri to power.

“My local government, Mubi North, is the second most populous in the state. The outgoing governor of Adamawa State is from Mubi North. I am the PDP there.

“Every PDP steward is from Mubi North, yet they couldn’t defeat me. I defeated all of them because I moved with the grassroots.

“If anyone is saying he is more powerful than me, then let 2023 come, we will meet them there. One thing about elections is that today, people are becoming wiser and wiser.

“So, to answer you, the governor did not defeat me. The governor did not chase me out. I actually gave way so that I will go and take his seat from him,” he said.

When asked to respond to a PDP statement calling for his resignation, he simply wondered why the party did not ask Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi State, who recently defected to the APC, to resign.

“Did they ask Umahi to resign? Go and ask them. Governor Umahi just defected from PDP to APC as a sitting governor of Ebonyi State. Did they ask him to resign? Tell them to resign from the secretariat,” he said.