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National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Uche Secondus, has described the defection of some of the party’s governors as an effort by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to rig the 2023 general elections.
Secondus stated this on Tuesday following the defection of the Zamfara State Governor, Bello Matawalle, after weeks of speculation from different quarters.
In his formal defection on Tuesday in Gusau, the capital of Zamfara State capital, Matawalle was welcomed to the party by 11 APC governors, Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, and other stakeholders led by Mala Mala Buni, the interim caretaker committee chairman of the APC
Matawalle is the second PDP governor to have left the main opposition party in the space of two months and the third in less than eight months.
He joined the likes of Cross River State Governor, Ben Ayade, who left the party in May, few months after the exit of his Ebonyi State counterpart, David Umahi, to the APC in November 2020.
But against the backdrop of the growing cases of defections from the PDP, Secondus, while addressing journalists in Abuja, insisted that the party was ready to return to power in 2023 after kicking the APC out.
He dismissed the possible impacts of the governors’ defection on the party as he hinged its chances in coming general elections on masses whom he said are tired of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration.
Secondus said that party will explore all options to secure the mandate given to it by the Supreme Court, referring to the Zamfara governor as a man “who has probably lost memory of how he became governor.”
Matawalle, the then PDP governorship candidate became the governor of the state after the apex court nullified the victory of the candidates of APC in the 2019 general elections in Zamfara State on the ground that the party did not conduct valid primaries.
With the defection of Matawalle, the APC now has 22 governors while that of PDP has shrinked to 13.