The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has instituted a legal action to stop Governor Bello Matawalle of Zamfara State from leaving the party.
News says that Governor Matawalle would, on Tuesday, join the All Progressives Congress (APC) as confirmed by multiple sources.
Barring any delay, it was gathered that the suit filed by some PDP chieftains against Governor Matawalle’s defection would be mentioned today (Monday) in court.
Governor of Yobe State and chairman of the caretaker committee of the APC, Mai Mala Buni, has confirmed the defection of Governor Matawalle in an invitation letter he issued, on Saturday.
Governor Buni, in the letter he personally signed, said the Zamfara governor will be received at the Zamfara State Government House, Gusau, on Tuesday.
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According to the Yobe State governor, Governor Matawalle would 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.
There had been reports of the planned defection of Governor 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, Sen. Hassan Muhammad Nasiha (PDP, Zamfara) said arrangements had 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.
Sen. 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.
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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.
