*Commends Ex-Gov Shema’s associates, supporters for dumping PDP
*Says move will bring in over 10,000 new members
With three days to this Saturday’s 2023 gubernatorial poll, the All Progressive Congress (APC) in Katsina State has received a major boost to defeat the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as many leaders of the opposition party defect to the ruling party.
Director General of the APC Campaign Council, Arch. Ahmed Musa Dangiwa, who gave this assurance at a press conference in Katsina yesterday, commended the associates and no fewer than 10,000 supporters of the former governor of the state, Barr. Ibrahim Shema, that defected to APC on Tuesday.
Notable among the former opposition leaders are Lawal Dankaba, erstwhile Katsina ALGON chairman; Jamilu Mamman Danmusa, former commissioner; his erstwhile counterpart in Shema’s cabinet, Auwalu Tijjani Zango; Bishir Tanimu Dutsinma, former PDP Northwest Zonal Secretary; Idris Kwado, politician and businessman; Aisha Isa Katsina, 2023 senatorial aspirant; and Abdu Wahab Sani Stores, former vice chairman of Katsina Local Government.
Dangiwa’s comment came after the loyalists of Shema thronged Government House Katsina to join the on-going efforts to stop the main opposition PDP that defeated APC in February 25, 2023, presidential election in the state although the ruling party won the three senatorial seats and nine out of the 15 House of Representatives seats across the state.
Reacting to highly anticipated defection of Shema to APC, Dangiwa declared that the ruling party had waxed stronger already and poised for victory on the eve of this weekend’s polls, given the steady stream of defections to the party.
“Shema has not decamped to the APC up to this moment; he has not told us that he has decamped to the APC but I think that about 90 per cent of his associates are now in APC as of today.
“We don’t know whether he will decamp before the election. I won’t say he has defected (to APC) but if he has, he is a very reputable figure and everybody will know,” said Dangiwa.
The mass defection to APC, he said, has highlighted the depth of confidence the people of the state has in the party’s gubernatorial candidate, Dr. Dikko Umar Radda, saying “the fact is that we have a better candidate and that is the only way you can save Katsina State: by ensuring that a reputable and honest candidate is chosen for the state.”
Dangiwa also mocked PDP for allegedly plotting to bring thugs from Kano and Zamfara States to disrupt, in some parts of the state, this Saturday’s governorship election because the opposition party is said to have realized that it would lose the election.
His words: “On the issue of the thugs, this is privilege information that we have had; it is confidential information, it’s important that security agencies should know (about it) and I am very much sure that they should have it by now but it’s good for the entire populace to know this.”
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