By Ismail Mudashir, Saawua Terzungwe, Hamisu Kabir Matazu (Abuja) & Shehu Umar (Gusau)
Fresh moves are on for Governor Bello Matawalle of Zamfara State to join the All Progressives Congress (APC), Daily Trust has gathered.
This is just as the party yesterday announced the extension of its on-going membership revalidation and registration exercise to accommodate new members.
There have been talks about the planned defection of Matawalle, who became governor of the state on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), following the judgement of the Supreme Court on the crisis that trailed the primaries of APC in Zamfara.
Matawalle’s moves to join the APC predated the defection of the Ebonyi State Governor David Umahi to the ruling party in November last year.
But the Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee led by Yobe State Governor Mai Mala Buni is yet to fix a date for the national convention where a new crop of National Working Committee (NWC) members would be elected. The tenure of the Buni-led caretaker committee would elapse in June.
Sheriff, a former National Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), made his position clear yesterday in Lafia, the Nasarawa State capital, when he visited the state governor, Abdullahi Sule, to solicit his support.
Governor Sule recently said the office of APC National Chairman should be allotted to the North Central geo-political zone, and specifically threw his weight behind a former governor of Nasarawa State, Umaru Tanko Al-Makura.
The former Speaker, who was the governorship candidate of Action Democratic Party (ADP) in the 2019 general elections, had earlier met with Chairman of the APC Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee, Governor Mai Mala Buni, in Abuja.
In his brief remarks, Bankole told his supporters and party officials that the registration marked his official defection to the ruling party.
“Today (yesterday) is not for a long speech. The only thing I will say is that I have now joined APC. What is left is to continue praying on the step we have taken. It will be well by God’s grace,” he said.
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