Ibekimi Oriamaja Reports
The governor of Niger State, Alhaji Abubakar Sani Bello, welcomed over 500 women who had switched parties to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) from the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and promised them a better life.
Bello also assured the women that they would be treated equally with everyone else at the party.
The governor, who is also the APC senatorial nominee for the Niger North senatorial district in 2023, spoke to the women on Saturday and called their decision to switch political allegiances “a sensible one, because your old party is already falling.”
He said that the projects outlined for the last quarter of this year, which included the growth of women’s and young people’s businesses, would be carried out in such a way as to capture the defectors.
The government, according to Bello, had made provisions for the settlement of herders in the final quarter of the year. “In the last quarter of our budget, we made enough provision for youths and women empowerment and skills acquisition, because the only way to move forward is to develop skills, even graduates that are doing nothing can participate in such ventures,” Bello said.
Speaking to APC participants at the event, Bello urged them to support the party wholeheartedly and reiterated that every effort was being made to increase public safety in terms of both personal and public property.
Hajiya Aisha Makka, the leader of the women who left the PDP, claimed that their choice to do so was “a collective one based on the generosity and benevolence of some APC stalwarts to us, regardless of party differences.”
The Governor also paid a visit to Alhaji Mohammadu Barau of Sarkin Sudan Kontagora, where he pledged to ask the federal government to rebuild the Kontagora-Minna road. He added, “I will personally follow this up to ensure the job starts immediately.”
While pleading with the governor to work with the federal government to put an end to the insurgency in his emirate, Barau complimented the governor for “the fantastic job you have been doing in our state” and begged him to keep it up in his remarks.
