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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, THISDAY’s investigation has revealed.
THISDAY 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.
Sources close to the Governor Seyi Makinde’s camp in the party have, however, expressed shock and disappointment with the development.
Members of Makinde’s camp are said to be wondering how a governor who led the flock of PDP governors could capitulate at the expense of the party, whose misery he was believed to have contributed to through his hardline posturing over the years.
Sources privy to the defection plot hinted that when Mohammed met with the president to conclude his defection plans, the president was said to have pointedly told him that it would be difficult to hand him the structure of the party as they did to other governors.
Tinubu, it was learnt, also explained to him the reasons why the APC structure in the state would not be handed over to him.
According to one of the sources, the president allegedly said the best he could do at the instance was to hand him his ticket back to the Senate, but that he won’t be allowed to nominate his successor.
“Unlike the privileges extended to the early detectors, Bala Mohammed can’t get the full APC structure in Bauchi. They told him the best he could get is his ticket to the Senate since he is nursing the ambition, but he can’t nominate his successor. He was told in clear terms. He is stuck, from all indications,” the source explained.
THISDAY also gathered that the governor was allegedly mandated to apologise to the son of the president, Seyi Tinubu, who was embarrassed last year by Mohammed’s son for sharing palliatives with the people of Bauchi State during last year’s Ramadan.
The source stated: “I’m not sure if you read sometime last year when Seyi Tinubu distributed some palliatives to people in Bauchi and Bala’s son lashed him thoroughly? They didn’t forget the embarrassment it caused them, and they have asked him to go and apologise to Seyi Tinubu. In fact, this particular condition is taken seriously.”
Shamsudeen Bala Mohammed, the son of Bauchi State Governor, had reportedly lashed out at Seyi in mid-March 2025.
He criticised Seyi for distributing food items in Bauchi State during Ramadan, calling on him instead to focus on sustainable empowerment, such as job training and business resources, rather than handouts.
However, in a show of his seriousness about joining the APC, Mohammed has allegedly 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.
