James Barka, former Acting Governor of Adamawa State, announced his decision to dump the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) “because of its plethora of failed promises and lack of credible leadership”.
James Barka, former Acting Governor of Adamawa State, has announced his decision to dump the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) “because of its plethora of failed promises and lack of credible leadership”.
Barka spoke on his planned defection to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) when he received Tahir Shehu, the Adamawa State PDP Chairman, and other leaders in audience at his residence in Yola.
Barka was Speaker of Adamawa State two times and later became Acting Governor when Governor Murtala Nyako's first tenure was nullified in 2008. He is currently a member of the Presidential Committee on Northeast Initiative (PCNI). He was also Nigeria's Ambassador to Malaysia under President Goodluck Jonathan.
"APC has failed Nigerians in a number of ways,” he said.
"We left the PDP back then in 2014 because of impunity, but surprisingly, APC has become worse off when it comes to impunity.”
On taming the tide of insecurity, he scored the Muhammadu Buhari-led government low, saying the APC performance has been “abysmal”.
He decried the persistent killings of innocent farmers in southern part of Adamawa State by suspected herdsmen, and lamented that the APC government was doing too little to arrest the situation.
Regarding governance on the home front, he criticized Jibirilla Bindow Governor of the state, describing him as “an unreliable fellow”.
"People should be people of integrity; when you say A, it should be A,” he said.
"When you say Chairman, let's meet tomorrow by 11am, it should be so.
“This is a government I helped to build, spending my resources and time, but today they hardly recognize whether we exist at all.”
Barka then revealed that his formal return to the PDP will happen at an elaborate ceremony in a couple of weeks.
While defecting from PDP to APC in 2015, Barja had said: “I am now into a newfound party of mine which I believe is the party with good manifesto to change the country that another party messed down for good.”