Senator Aisha Al-hassan, who resigned her appointment as Women Affairs minister and also dumped the All Progressives Congress, APC, on Saturday, has picked the United Democratic Party,UDP nomination form to contest for the Taraba governorship seat.
At a press conference shortly after joining the UDP and picking its nomination form, she claimed that the APC had become “the weakest political party in Taraba” with her defection.
The former minister claimed that she left the APC with thousands of her supporters, adding that many aspirants seeking the APC ticket to contest various offices in 2019 would soon pick UDP nominations forms.
Al-hassan, who was disqualified from seeking the APC ticket, alleged that she was dropped by the National Chairman of the APC, Mr Adams Oshiomhole.
“It was not the screening committee that disqualified me; the chairman of the party personally did it.
“But, I have put that behind me. I have moved to the UDP and will seek its ticket to contest the governorship election.
“Oshiomhole has used his powers to deal with me, but it is God that gives power,” she said.
The former minister, who contested the seat in 2015 and lost to PDP’s Darius Ishaku, advised President Muhammadu Buhari to pay more attention to the activities of APC leaders so that their actions would not affect the party’s popularity.
The governorship screening committee of the APC had on Thursday disqualified Al-hassan from joining 10 other aspirants to fight for the ticket in the primary election slated for Sunday, September 30.
Alhassan had hinged her resignation on her disqualification in the screening for the 2019 Taraba state governorship contest by the APC National Working Committee.
She said she was axed without any viable or genuine reason.
“If I am not good enough to contest elections in the APC, then I feel I am not also qualified to remain a minister in the APC government,” she stated.
She thanked the president, her ward executives and other members of the party for the opportunity given her to serve.
Aisha Alhassan was the governorship candidate of the APC in the 2015 election in Taraba State.
She was the only one disqualified by the NWC out of 12 aspirants slated to run in the primaries scheduled for Sunday.
Aisha Alhassan may however have incurred the wrath of the party when she declared in a BBC Hausa Service report last year September that she would support former vice-president Atiku Abubakar for the presidency, instead of President Buhari.
Abubakar is now a presidential aspirant, among a dozen other aspirants in the Peoples Democratic Party.
She said her choice of Abubakar was predicated on the fact that the former Vice President is her “godfather.”
“Atiku is my godfather even before I joined politics. And again, Baba Buhari did not tell us that he is going to run in 2019.
“Let me tell you today that if Baba said he is going to contest in 2019, I swear to Allah, I will go before him and kneel and tell him that ‘Baba I am grateful for the opportunity you gave me to serve your government as a minister, but Baba just like you know, I will support only Atiku because he is my godfather. If Atiku said he is going to contest.”
On the possibility of losing her job for rooting for Abubakar in 2019, Alhassan said, “If because of what I said, I am sacked, it will not bother me because I believe in Allah, that my time has elapsed that is why.
“Baba is not a mad man like those calling for my sack. They have been sending it and spreading that if Baba sees this I will be sacked.”
However, Buhari declined to sack her for the statement and she also reportedly went to beg the president to retain her job.
The remaining aspirants in the Taraba governorship race are H.E. Sani Abubakar Danladi; Senator Joel Danlami Ikenya; Garba Umar-UTC; Prof. Mohammed Sanni Yahaya; Comrade Bobboi Bala Kaigama; Aliyu Omar MON; Chief Ezekiel Afunkuyo; Chief David Sabo Kente; Mohammed Tumba Ibrahim; Barr. Kabiru Umaru and Aliyu Omar.
NAN/Punch
