According to Punch, Mama Taraba resigned her appointment as a Minister on Friday morning. An aide to Alhassan, who pleaded anonymity disclosed the development.

She was said to be waiting for President Muhammadu Buhari’s response before joining the UDP.

However, the media aide to Alhassan, Bala Maina, told the newspaper that the resignation remained a speculation and that the former minister would react at the appropriate time.

He said, “We can’t say anything for now, but note that the masses own the party and we shall always align ourselves with their verdict.”

The report of Alhassan’s resignation and move to join the UDP follows the decision of the National Working Committee of the APC to disqualify her from running in the Taraba State governorship election on its platform.

DAILY POST had earlier reported that Alhassan and the Minister of Communications, Adebayo Shittu, were not cleared to contest for the governorship primary in their respective states by the National Working Committee of the party.

The National Chairman of the APC, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, had in a press conference in Abuja on Friday outlined the reasons both Ministers were disqualified.

Why APC disqualified Shittu, Al-Hassan – Oshiomhole

The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Adams Oshiomhole, on Friday, said the party had to disqualify the Minister of Communication, Adebayo Shittu and his Women Affairs counterpart, Aisha Al-Hassan in order to protect the party’s core values.

He said this at a press conference, in Abuja, on Friday.

Oshiomhole said the party’s governorship screening committee was not convinced with explanations offered by Shittu that his service as lawmaker in the Oyo State Assembly and Minister was equivalent to the National Youth Service Corps scheme.

According to him, Nigeria’s laws were clear on the issue of the NYSC. As for the Minister of Women Affairs, Aisha Al-Hassan, he said she was disqualified because the party was not convinced about her loyalty.

Oshiomhole said “As for the Honourable Minister of Women Affairs, she has issues that have to do with party loyalty. Our constitution is clear and it dictates that to contest elections or even hold office in the APC, you must be loyal to the party in every material concern.

“From all she had said in the past and even her comments and general attitude during the screening, the NWC reviewed everything taken together and we arrived at the conclusion that she does not possess the level of loyalty that the APC requires for her to contest elections on our platform.

“We made it clear when the defections happened that the APC may well benefit from these defections if it helps us to be more critical in terms of whom we give platform to contest elections and that there are core values that binds the APC together and they are non-negotiable.

“The Electoral Act and the APC constitution forbid anyone from being a member of more than one political party at a time. You cannot be a member of APC and be a card carrying member of another party but when you have a situation where it would appear, based on what you know and based on what I know that someone is probably APC in the day time maybe for the purpose of retaining certain offices and they are PDP at heart.”

Earlier, the party had cleared the Kaduna state Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, his Kano and Kebbi State counterparts, Abdullahi Ganduje and Abubakar Bagude respectively, to run as sole aspirants in Sunday’s APC Governorship primaries in their States.

This was contained in a statement signed by the acting National Publicity Secretary, Yekini Nabena, in Abuja, on Friday.