Deputy Gov Remains As Senators, Reps, Others Follow Matawalle To APC

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Ahead of today’s defection of Zamfara State Governor Bello
Matawalle to the All Progressives Congress (APC), three senators,
five members of the House of Representatives and 18 members of the
state House Assembly have indicated interest to decamp with the
governor to the ruling party, Daily Trust reports.

This is as the Deputy Governor, Mahdi Aliyu Gusau, two members
of the House of Representatives and six members of the Zamfara
State House of Assembly are not likely to defect with the
governor.

Reliable sources told Daily Trust that the deputy governor, who
is a son of a former National Security Adviser, General Aliyu
Gusau, has told the governor that he is not ready to leave the
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). General Gusau is regarded as the
father of the PDP in Zamfara State.

A source in Zamfara State Government House told one of our
reporters that the younger Gusau departed for Abuja to avoid the
defection programme.

“The deputy governor has travelled to Abuja because he does not
want to be part of our programme. He said he cannot dump his father
for Matawalle. His father is the oracle of Zamfara PDP,” the source
said.

Another source told Daily Trust that the Sokoto scenario in 2019
is about to repeat itself when the state governor, Aminu Waziri
Tambuwal, dumped APC for PDP. The then Sokoto deputy governor,
Aliyu Ahmed, stayed back in APC.

Efforts to get the deputy governor to speak on the matter
through phone yielded no result as he did not pick his calls. Text
messages sent to him were also not replied to.

A member representing Zurmi in the state assembly, Salihu Usman
Zurmi, said he was still undecided on whether he would join APC or
not.

But the member representing Maru, Alhassan Kanoma, said he was
set to join APC.

Matawalle’s planned defection has been greeted with mixed
reactions from residents of the state.

Meanwhile, stakeholders in the camp of a former governor of the
state and leader of the APC in the state, Abdulaziz Yari, have
welcomed Matawalle’s decision to pitch tent with the ruling
party.

Yari was said to be uncomfortable with the governor’s decision
to defect to the party consequent upon the existing political
culture in the country, in which the governor of a state is
automatically the leader of the party upon which he clinched the
seat.

But addressing APC stakeholders from all the local government
areas of the state at a meeting held in Kaduna, yesterday, Yari
said he welcomed Matawalle into the party alongside his supporters
but that he and other stakeholders were still holding meetings to
see how every member of the party would be treated fairly.

Yari said: “We will not take any position without our people’s
consent, that is why we invited all the stakeholders to take a
stand. We will not decide on anything that will not be of benefit
to the party as well as the state.

“We agreed that the governor is coming with authority while we
have the people on ground. So we hope and pray that his coming to
the party will be beneficial and will add value to the party in the
state. So, he is welcome.”

He said previous APC administrations in the state had worked
hard to make the party attractive for others like Matawalle to
join.

In his remarks, another former governor of the state, Alhaji
Mahmud Aliyu Shinkafi, described Matawalle’s defection as a
blessing to the party and the state.