Governor of Bauchi, Bala Mohammed reportedly plans APC defection this week, negotiating conditions after meeting Tinubu, sparking disappointment within Makinde’s PDP camp.
An end may have finally come to the active relevance of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the Chairman of its governors’ forum and Governor of Bauchi State, Bala Mohammed, has concluded plans to join the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) this week, barring any unforeseen circumstances.
It was gathered last night that the terms of his defection to the ruling party were still being negotiated. 
However, multiple sources privy to the negotiations told THISDAY that he was offered the APC senatorial ticket and would get all the allowances received by other governors that joined the ruling party.
According to the sources, the Bauchi State governor, in a meeting with President Bola Tinubu and the APC leadership, disclosed his intention to be part of the political family.
One of the sources stated that his planned defection to the APC may not be unconnected with the travails of his Commissioner for Finance, Yakubu Adamu, who is facing terrorism charges and a money laundering case involving about N4.6billion
The commissioner was said to have threatened to implicate the governor if he was not released from custody.
It was learnt that the ruling party handed stringent conditions to Mohammed, different from the agreements the ruling party reached with other governors.
apologised to the president’s son. Still, the governor is said to be uncomfortable with the other condition.
According to the source, he wanted to have a say in his succession plans because of his legacy.
To this end, the source explained that the governor went back to the National Chairman of the APC, Professor Nentawe Yilwatda, to help speak with the president about considering a 60/40 structure-sharing arrangement in the state.
Although none of the sources could confirm whether the APC chairman had completed his assignment, Mohammed was said to have taken further steps in his defection plot by convening a stakeholders’ meeting in the state this week, in the expectation that the president would concede to his request.
This development has angered other members of the party in Governor Makinde’s camp, who considered Mohammed’s last-minute decision a betrayal of all the efforts to reconcile and rearrange the PDP’s fortune.
Some of the PDP members, who got wind of the development, said if the chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum could not stay back to fight for his party, despite all that he and Makinde had put into the efforts to rescue the party, then the hope for democracy has dimmed further.
Meanwhile, if Mohammed joins the APC, the number of governors in the party will rise to 32. While the PDP has Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, and the Labour Party (LP) has Alex Otti of Abia State, the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and Accord Party have Prof. Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra State and Ademola Adeleke of Osun State, respectively.
Thisday
