The former governor of Zamfara State, Alhaji Mahmuda
Aliyu Shinkafi, alongside his political associates and supporters yesterday
defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC) from the People’s Democratic
Party (PDP).
Shinkafi’s defection wagon was said to be heavily loaded
as his former chief of staff, Alhaji Musa Zubairu Nassarawa Mailayi, his deputy
governorship candidate during the 2015 election, Alhaji Malami Aliyu Yandoto
and his former Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Alhaji Mamman Bawa, all
followed him to the APC.
Others who joined Shinkafi’s train to the APC were PDP
chairmen in all the 14 local government areas of Zamfara State; 14 former
council chairmen, all his ex- commissioners, friends and other political
associates.
Shinkafi was the executive governor of Zamfara between
2007 and 2011 but was defeated by AbdulAziz Yari of the defunct ANPP in a hotly
contested election in 2011 when he was making moves to get a second term.
He also re-contested in 2015 but was defeated again by
Yari.
Speculations that raged for weeks came to fruition at the
weekend when Shinkafi pitched his tent with the ruling APC after series of
meetings by stakeholders of both his former and new party in Kano, Kaduna and
Sokoto.
Speaking during the formal declaration in Gusau, the
state capital, Shinkafi hinged his action on the quest for rapid development of
the state, support for President Muhammadu Buhari’s anti-graft war and the
crises rocking the PDP at the state and national levels.
He then asked all his supporters to go back to their
respective wards and receive APC membership cards, saying he and those who
believe in his political ideology defected on their own volition.
He said there was no agreement on what position goes to who.
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