A few days before the 2023 governorship election, the Labour Party (LP) candidate in Adamawa State, Umar Mustapha, announced his withdrawal from the race and endorsed his counterpart from the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Aishatu Binani.
On Sunday evening, Naija News understands that the LP candidate, known as Otumba, confirmed his alliance with Binani while addressing a press in Yola, the state capital.
Mustapha acknowledged that he had been confronted with some challenges while seeking to be governor of the state. He thereby resolved to put aside his ambition for the moment and fully support the governorship ambition of Binani.
The politician believes the APC candidate will provide a people-centred leadership that prioritizes human capital and resource development to prosper Adamawa State.
He said: “That is why I am calling on all my supporters to come out on Saturday, March 11, and vote for Distinguished Senator Aishatu Ahmed Binani as Governor of Adamawa State.”
Mustapha added that he was putting all the structures of his Otumba Campaign Organisation at Binani’s disposal.
It was gathered that the LP candidate, who has long been estranged from his Labour Party leadership at both the state and national levels, pronounced the endorsement for Binani on his own account.
Reports noted that Mustapha had not been working with his Labour Party. Also, he is said to have been accusing the state leadership of the party of working with the state chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the success of Governor Ahmadu Fintiri in the scheduled March 11 election.
Mustapha had, just before the Presidential election of last Saturday, made an open endorsement of the APC candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, now president-elect, confessing that he was not having the sort of relationship with Labour Party’s Peter Obi, to promote his candidacy.
Many reports said Mustapha did not clarify at the Sunday briefing if he had in effect, left Labour Party, as he tactically left that aspect out of the answers he provided to questions that journalists put to him.
Senator Aishatu Binani, who attended the brief ceremony at which Umar Mustapha announced her endorsement, said it was a welcome development and that it would boost her chances at the election of coming Saturday.
“This endorsement of Otumba will in itself alone send jitters into many circles,” Binani reportedly said.