Zamfara State governor, Bello Matawalle, will tomorrow join the All Progressives Congress (APC) from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), multiple sources have confirmed.
This is just as PDP has instituted a legal action to stop the Zamfara governor from dumping their party.
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Barring any delay, it was gathered that the suit filed by some PDP chieftains against Matawalle’s defection would be mentioned today in court.
Yobe State governor and chairman of the caretaker committee of the APC, Mai Mala Buni has confirmed the defection of Matawalle in an invitation letter he issued on Saturday.
Buni, in the letter he personally signed, sighted by Daily Trust, said the Zamfara governor will be received at the Zamfara State Government House, Gusau, tomorrow.
According to the Yobe governor, Matawalle will join the APC together with his teeming supporters.
Similarly, on a local radio station in Zamfara State, an announcement was made to the effect that the governor will decamp to APC tomorrow. The announcement aired yesterday was made by Alhaji Ibrahim Dosara.
Daily Trust reports that there have been reports of the planned defection of Matawalle, who became governor of Zamfara State following the Supreme Court judgement on the crisis that rocked the APC in the state at the build up to the 2019 general the elections.
Also speaking, Senator Hassan Muhammad Nasiha (PDP, Zamfara) said arrangements have gone far on the defection.
The Senator told one of our correspondents yesterday that consultations were still going on, but expressed optimism that tomorrow would determine a new political direction for the governor and his teeming supporters.
Senator Nasiha had earlier held a meeting with stakeholders at the PDP Secretariat in Gusau, the state capital, where he asked them to move with Governor Matawalle to the APC.
Similarly, a former Commissioner for Rural Development and Cooperatives in Zamfara State, Alhaji Abubakar Abdullahi Tsafe, has also confirmed that the governor would pitch tent with the APC tomorrow.
Tsafe, a chieftain of the APC in Zamfara State was the first to call on Matawalle to join APC in March last year. He was one of the APC chieftains in the cabinet of Matawalle until it was dissolved early this month.
In a statement he personally signed yesterday, Tsafe said: “all arrangements have been concluded for the governor to join the APC. We will formally receive him on Tuesday.”
“When as a member of his cabinet, I was appealing to the governor to join the APC, a lot of people expressed reservations but to the glory of Allah, he has accepted to join,” he added.
The President’s Personal Assistant on New Media, Bashir Ahmad, in a Facebook post earlier on Sunday, wrote: “So Zamfara is back home. Welcome Matawalle”
Our correspondents observed that he has been avoiding PDP gatherings of recent. Two weeks ago, when PDP governors in company of the party’s national chairman, Prince Uche Secondus, met in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital, the Zamfara governor was conspicuously absent. He sent his deputy to represent him.
When PDP governors also welcomed former Governor Donald Duke of Cross River State to the party from the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Matawalle also sent his deputy to represent him.
The PDP Publicity Secretary in the state, Alhaji Farouk Ahmad Shattima said the party would brief newsmen later, while the APC Vice Chairman, Alhaji Sani Gwamna Mayanchi said the party would issue a statement later.
Yari’s camp holds emergency meeting in Kaduna
Meanwhile, the camp of the leader of the APC in Zamfara State, Alhaji Abdulaziz Yari will hold an emergency meeting over the planned defection of Matawalle today in Kaduna.
A reliable source around the former governor told one of our correspondents that at the end of the meeting, a communique will be issued to announce their position on the matter.
Yari, a former governor of the state and his teeming supporters are said to be against the defection of Matawalle to APC.
Meanwhile, the immediate past National Secretary of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Dr Sani Abdulahi Shinkafi, has resigned from the party to join Matawalle into the APC.
By Ismail Mudashir, Saawua Terzungwe, Abbas Jimoh (Abuja) & Shehu Umar (Gusau)
