Over 1,500 members of the All Progressives Congress in Radda town, Charanchi Local Government Area of Katsina State on Friday defected to the Peoples Democratic Party.
The defectors moved to the PDP with their leader, Alhaji Mustapha Radda, the APC youth mobilisation officer in the state from 2010 to 2016.
Receiving the defectors, the PDP state Chairman, Alhaji Salisu Majigiri, said the party had constituted a reception committee to receive defectors to the party.
Majigiri said: “The committee is mandated to receive all the people who defected to our party from other parties.
“We shall treat all those who defected to our party equally without any form of discrimination.
“Just this week, we received Alhaji Umar Tata, APGA governorship candidate in the 2015 election, to our party together with his supporters.
“We are ready to provide level playing ground to old and new members during future elections and there will be no imposition of candidates this time around.”
In his remarks, Radda, the leader of the defectors, said he decided to dump the APC for the PDP to rescue his people from alleged maltreatment.
Radda said: “We have done a lot for the APC, but today my people especially the youths that I mobilised have nothing to show for it.
“We did not benefit from the APC poverty alleviation programme meant to rescue women and youths from poverty; we have presented several requests to those that matter but we were rejected.’’
Also speaking, Tata said the defectors were prepared for the restructuring of the PDP for effective service delivery.
He said that the leadership of the PDP had promised to assist the youths with capital to establish their business.
