No fewer than 252 Special Advisers and Special Assistants appointed in Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal’s administration have resigned their positions in objection to the governors decision to drag them to the PDP.
Tambuwal defected from the APC to the PDP on August 1.
The aides said that their resolve to remain in APC will not allow them to function in their respective positions under Tambuwal’s government.
“We deem it fit to state categorically that we are not ready to join Governor Tambuwal in his new party. That was what informed our decision. We will remain in APC and there is no going back,” the spokesman of the SAs, Hon. Dasuki Haske, told journalists at a press conference in Sokoto on Sunday.
“We are members of APC before taking up our appointments as SAs and it was based on our membership values that we were given such positions. Now, we have resigned because the governor has not performed well since inception to justify our support for him.
“We want to assure that we will work for the success of APC in the state come 2019 general election. We will work for the re-election of President Muhammadu Buhari and our state party leader, Senator Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko,” Haske said.
Another speaker, Abdullahi Ahmad Sokoto, said all the ex-aides will work for the success of APC in the state because the party remained the one to beat in any election.
According to a former Special Assistant, they were called and compelled to swear with Holy Qur’an to secure their promise to defect from APC before they could be paid their August salary.
Hajia Rabi Tudunwada disclosed that some of them had refused to be part of the oath, which informed their decision to resign from their respective positions.
She said both the PDP and Governor Tambuwal will be rejected in the forthcoming general elections by the electorate.
The state APC chairman, Hon. Isah Achida, thanked the affected Special Advisers and Assistants for their loyalty to the party, adding they will get rewards for their “steadfastness and commitment to the party.”
Governor Tambuwal’s media aide, however, described their resignation as “a reaction and an after thought.”
Abubakar Shekara said, “Their resignation was a reaction to their sacking, conveyed to them earlier in the day, which made them to rush to the press”
According to him, their appointment was terminated to enable them get involved in partisan politics without ethical or moral dilemma.