“We want to state very clearly that Engineer Markus Gundiri has no coordinators at the moment,” Mrs Bala said, adding that its gubernatorial candidate “is even yet to appoint his campaign managers for the 2012 governorship election.”

Mrs Bala chided the ruling PDP in the state for resorting to propaganda. “Those of them claiming to be coordinators are impostors driven by greed to the arms of a visionless government whose leadership has brought pains to the people instead of prosperity and good governance.

“Governor Nyako is receiving decampees when his government and party have been consistently made unattractive by the governor’s policy actions as evident in his insensitive handling of the ongoing labour strike in the state.

According to Mrs Bala, “This style of propaganda is archaic and unproductive. Governor Murtala Nyako should concentrate on solving his numerous problems with the people of Adamawa and not boring them with false stories that will not add value to his government.” The controversy which has trailed the announcement by the Adamawa State chapter of the PDP that 13 stalwarts from the opposition ACN who are at the same time are coordinators of the party’s gubernatorial candidate Markus Gundiri at the local government area council of the state that switched allegiance to Mr Nyako jolted the ACN.

A former governor of the state and chieftain of the party in a swift reaction quickly debunked the claims saying “those who decamped were not ACN party members.” He added that those who left the party for the PDP must have been driven by greed.

NEXT gathered from a source that in fact only 5 of those who may have defected to the PDP fit the status of local government coordinators of the party in the state. Meanwhile,

Abdulrazaq Namdass, the running mate to the ACN candidate in the state countered that the number was fewer, saying only two of those that decamped were known to the party: Umaru Inuwa Girei, who led the decampees, and Adamu Suwande, a party stalwart from Demsa local government area of the state.

But Mijinyawa Kugama the Adamawa State PDP state chairman has maintained that his party will not shout itself hoarse over the issue, insisting that “decampees were staunch ACN members”. According to him, “These people are staunch ACN members. We have fought with them on the field. 13 of them are senior stakeholders of ACN coordinating the gubernatorial campaign of their party now coming to support the Nyako campaign for 2012 gubernatorial elections in the state”.