Market men and women from across all the local government councils in Niger state on Friday besieged the national Secretariat of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to purchase a N22.5 million nomination and expression of interest form for Niger state Governor, Alhaji Abubakar Sani Bello.
Coming under the auspices of the Niger state Market Men and Women Association, the Group said they decided to buy the nomination form for the Governor because of their conviction that his tenure has brought lot of blessings to the people of the state.
Spokesman of the traders, Alhaji Ahmed Salihu told newsmen that traders in the state camp together to contribute money to purchase the firm, stressing that they were heading back to Minna to present it to the governor as a surprise gift.
He said “In the history of Niger state, this is the first time that Market Association decided to buy the nomination and expression of interest forms for the present governor of Niger State, Abubakar Sadiq Sani Bello.
“We are doing this because the governor has achieved a lot not only for market people but to the entire Niger people. Talking about the market people, for the first time the governor fixed all the roads in the market.
“He provided three 500 KVA transformer to the market. He did this because he wants to discourage the use of small power generating sets in the market in order to avoid fire disaster.
“So because of his achievements, the market people decided to come together to do this for him. We are here on his behalf without even his knowledge. After here we are going back to the state present it to the governor as a big surprise.
“If the market association has a chance, it would have first purchased the form for President Muhammadu Buhari for what he has done.”
Salihu disclosed that improvement in market activities in the State has helped improve the internally generated revenue in the state, saying under the governor’s administration, the state IGR has improved just as commercial activities have risen”
Also on Friday, 12 members of the Sokoto state House of Assembly who refused to join former Speaker of the house of representatives, Aminu Tambuwal to defect to the main opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) were also at the secretariat to buy a nomination form for one of them, Faruok Malami Yabo.
Leader of the delegation, Sani Alhaji Yakubu told newsmen that they are ready to take over the government from the current PDP government led by Aminu Tambuwal.
While insisting that the APC will take over power from the PDP in the State during 2019 general elections, Yakubu said “As you can see, we have all contributed a total sum of 22 million, 500 thousand to obtain form for Honourable Yabo
“We decided to contribute our hard-earned salaries to the gentleman because we found it very imperative,” he said.
