There are insinuations that Governor Bello Matawalle of Zamfara State has concluded plans to join the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
This puts to end months of speculation around his rapport with the ruling party that was deemed too close for comfort by his fellow members of the opposition.
Confirming his planned defection to the Peoples Gazette, Mr Matawalle’s spokesman, Ibrahim Dosara, said his principal will officially announce his exit from PDP on Tuesday.
Similarly, Bashir Ahmad, a social media aide to President Muhammadu Buhari, in a Facebook post on Sunday, said Mr Matawalle had joined the ruling party.
“So Zamfara is back home! Welcome, Matawalle,” Mr Ahmad said.
Mr Matawalle became governor via a Supreme Court judgment that disqualified all APC candidates in Zamfara in the 2019 general elections for breaching electoral guidelines in picking candidates.
Matawalle was said to have been hobnobbing with the APC while keeping studied distance from his party PDP, even distancing himself from party functions, preferring to detail his deputy in his stead.
On a few occasions, emissaries of the Progressives Governors’ Forum met with Mr Matawalle in the state capital Gusau to persuade him to join to their party.
The PDP Governors’ Forum has also made counter visits to convince him to stay at the party.
Mr Matawalle becomes the third governor from the PDP to cross over to the APC since 2019, after Ben Ayade of Cross River State and Davis Umahi of Ebonyi State.
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