“I cannot contemplate defecting from PDP to another party; I will rather resign from politics because I don’t believe in defecting”, the former Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriation stated.
A presidential aspirant on the platform of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and former governor of Kaduna State, Senator Ahmed Makarfi, has said that he would not defect if he fails to clinch the party’s ticket.
Addressing journalists yesterday at the PDP secretariat in Minna, Makarfi said rather than defect, he would retire from politics.
“I cannot contemplate defecting from PDP to another party; I will rather resign from politics because I don’t believe in defecting”, the former Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriation stated.
He, however, said there was nothing wrong in politicians defecting to another political party as was witnessed recently when some stakeholders re-joined the PDP from the ruling All Progressives
Congress (APC).
He also denied media reports quoting him as warning his party executive on defectors, saying his statement was misinterpreted.
“I made a statement in Lokoja, which was somehow twisted; I’m 100 per cent in support of those who defected; in fact, I predicted that after the APC convention, there will be a lot of defections. We are still expecting more people to join our party but the challenge is how to manage this success. If we manage it well, it will be to our advantage, but if we fail to do so there will be backlash and that is what I said,” he said.
He said there is enough room in the party to accommodate everybody, adding that what the leadership needs to do is to work out an enduring system that would take care of contending interests of those who are coming in and those already within the system.
“All of us should be prepared to make sacrifices for the collective interest of the party and Nigeria as a whole,” he advised.
On calls by the APC leadership on the Senate President, Bukola Saraki to resign his position, he said, “the Senate President and his deputy as well as the Speaker and his deputy were elected by all irrespective of the political parties they belong to based on the stipulation of the constitution. So the call on them by APC leadership to step aside is misplaced, unlawful and unconstitutional”.