Three well-known lawmakers who were regarded as important power brokers within the PDP in Kebbi State formally defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC), causing the party to suffer a significant political blow.
Their defection comes at a crucial moment, as the PDP gets ready for its National Executive Committee meeting on May 27, 2025.
This comes after Governor Nasir Idris alluded that the senators would soon join the APC during a recent stakeholders’ meeting in Birnin Kebbi.
The senators have kept mute up to this point, despite the fact that many of their followers had already defected during the governor’s local government visit last year.
Following their meeting with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, the three senators Adamu Aliero from Kebbi Central, Yahaya Abubakar Abdullahi from Kebbi North, and Garba Maidoki from Kebbi South announced their defection. Dr Abdullahi Ganduje, the national chairman of the APC, escorted them to the meeting.
Governors Nasir Idris of Kebbi State, Ahmad Aliyu of Sokoto State, and Senator Atiku Bagudu, Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, were also in attendance.
Their departure is viewed as a major boost to the APC’s national and Kebbi political power, particularly in the run-up to the general elections in 2027.
The PDP’s already precarious structure in Kebbi is further weakened by the most recent setback. Sani Dododo, the state’s PDP publicity secretary, recently accused the senators in public of misleading party loyalists and delaying their defection in order to do the most harm possible.
Since these meetings are typically only held for existing governors, the PDP Governors’ Forum has called its first special meeting in reaction to the escalating issue.
According to insiders, the agenda includes talks about the zoning of national party offices and reaching an agreement before the party’s national convention.
Former Minister of Justice and Attorney General Abubakar Malami has recently distanced himself from the APC, publicly withdrawing his support from the CPC bloc aligned with President Tinubu’s re-election bid.
Although Malami has yet to declare affiliation with another political party, his absence from APC events and political fora has fuelled speculation that he may be positioning himself as a leading opposition figure in the state.
