The Governor of Zamfara State, Bello Matawalle has concluded plans to join the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the defection will officially take place on Tuesday, June 29, 2021.
This is according to an official invitation sighted by The Street Journal where the leader of the APC extraordinary committee, Maimala Buni, invited all and sundry to witness the defection at the Zamfara State Government House.
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.
Earlier, Bashir Ahmad, a social media aide to President Muhammadu Buhari, in a Facebook post on Sunday, confirmed 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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