Labaran Maku, former Information minister, and supervising minister of defense, has formally declared his intention to contest the governorship seat of Nasarawa State in 2023 on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
This is coming less than one week after Labaran Maku left the All Progressives Grant Allaince (APGA) to the PDP.
Maku joined APGA in 2014 and subsequently became the party’s National Secretary, after losing the ticket to emerge PDP flag-bearer for the 2015 gubernatorial election.
He was a member of the PDP since 1999, where served as information Commissioner and deputy governor in Nasarawa State.
Declaring his intention known, alongside his supporters’ Saturday at the state PDP Secretariat in Lafia, Maku said, there is no reason for PDP not to win the 2023 governorship election in Nasarawa.
According to him, the APC administration has performed woefully in the years it has governed the State, hence PDP in the state should sit up and put its house in order so that the party can emerge victorious at the polls in 2023.
The former Minister who pologised to the party members for leaving them in 2015, said he had been a committed member and had served in various capacities at the state and federal levels before he left following dissatisfaction with outcome of the 2015 governorship primary of the party.
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The former minister said though he could not justify his departure from the party, he asked for forgiveness from party members, adding that he had forgiven all that betrayed him in the past.
Maku said, he would contest the governorship seat and promised to accept the outcome of the party’s primary, and that, he would work with whoever picked the ticket to deliver the party in 2023.
He noted, the state had suffered a lot from bad governance, poor performance by government officials and total neglect of the people in the last 12 years.
“We are on a rescue mission under PDP,’’ he said and appealed to the people to vote out APC in 2023.
He maintained that, he was not desperate for power because it is God that gives power to whoever He chooses at the right time.
“As far as I know, power belongs to God. We have come to bring development and not to make name for ourselves; God has already given me the name.”
Francis Orogu, the PDP Chairman in the state was happy that Maku’s returned to the party seven years after, adding that the leadership of the party had been working since 2019 to reabsorb him.
He described Maku’s return as home coming, saying that, his return would add value to the PDP ahead of forthcoming primary.
Orogu assured Maku that the leadership of the party would provide a level playing ground for all aspirants to realise their ambitions.
The PDP chairman also commended Maku for regularly speaking truth to power and called on other stakeholders of the party to always speak out and challenge government to good governance.
