From: Segun Babatunde in Bauchi
The Amalgamation of All Progressives Congress (APC) Youth Organization in the Northeast geopolitical zone has endorsed the candidature of Senator Halliru Dauda Jika as its gubernatorial hopeful in Bauchi state ahead of the 2023 general elections.
The organization which is under the tutelage of APC Northeast Youth Ambassadors has outlined reasons behind its endorsement of Senator Halliru Jika to contest the state’s most coveted seat in the next polls.
The Zonal Chairman of the organization, Mr Abubakar Abdulmumin during a press briefing yesterday in Bauchi, recalled that Senator Jika now representing Bauchi central district in the Senate had been elected four times to various elective offices to represent electorate in the state and Nigerians generally.
He said Jika was at one-time member and speaker of the Bauchi State House of Assembly, and subsequently a member who represented the Ganjuwa/Darazo federal constituency in the National Assembly.
“It was for these reasons and many more that we guinea members of the APC come to the conclusion that Senator Halliru Jika is the only politician from the Bauchi central senatorial district and the state at large who could effectively and efficiently steer the ship of Bauchi in the 2023 polls”, Abubakar said.
Abubakar recalled that some of those APC members aspiring for the governorship of the state have in 2019 general elections perpetrated anti-party activities that culminated to the enthronement of the then opposition People’s Democratic Party to the governance of the state, hence they should now not be given the opportunity to recontest the seat”.
He explained that the moment those castoffs or betrayals were again given similar opportunity to stand for elections, they would exhibit the same attitudes and characters, and eventually lead the party awash, saying a leopard hardly change its sport.