PDP in further heat as ex-Zamfara Governor Shinkafi defects to APC
*IBB’s in-law dumps PDP 24 hours after comment on PDP military wing
Mamuda Shinkafi, a former Governor of Zamfara on Sunday defected to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Shinkafi, who became the state governor in 2007 on the platform of All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP) and defected to the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in 2008.
He, however, lost to the APC in 2011 and had since then remained in the opposition.
Shinkafi announced his decision to join the APC at a ceremony in Gusau, the state capital.
According to him, it is the outcome of a “long negotiation between me and stakeholders who have faith in me and my leadership qualities.”
He told all his supporters to join him as he strove to make the APC stronger.
Shinkafi said that after series of meetings with stakeholders, he had sincerely made up his mind to join the APC.
He also announced that all his former cabinet members, including his former Secretary to the State Government, Mamman Bawa, had joined him in the APC.
The return of Shinkafi to the APC might be a grand plan by the stakeholders in the state to re-elect him as governor in the 2019 elections.
Alhaji Muntari Anka, who served as Shinkafi’s deputy governor, also moved to the APC in Anka Local Government constituency a fortnight ago.
Shinkafi, whose defection from ANPP to PDP after his election in 2007 followed his marriage to former Military President Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida’s daughter, Aisha, was making his latest political move to dump PDP 24 hours after his father in-law declared that he and some other retired Generals form the military wing of the PDP and that the party would still rule for 60 years.
