Sokoto: Relief For Tambuwal As Deputy Debunks Defection Rumour

Ahead the All Progressives Congress, APC presidential campaign in Sokoto on Thursday, Manir Muhammad, the Deputy Governor of the state was said to have dumped the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and was heading for the ruling party.

The ruling party in the country held a massive campaign in the state yesterday attended by President Muhammadu Buhari, APC presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu and a host of other chieftains of the party, where PDP defectors were said would be received into the party.

In a viral letter on Wednesday, the state’s number two citizen was said to have sent a letter to his ward chairman of Kware ward, Kware Local Government Area, informing him of his resignation from the PDP.

The letter also came on the crest of suggestions that 11 commissioners have left the Governor Aminu Tambuwal cabinet to join the APC.

As the Director General of the PDP presidential campaign council many have feared that Tambuwal and PDP were fast losing grounds to APC following the rumoured defection.

In fact, the Deputy Governor the peddlar of the report said was planning to use the occasion of the APC presidential campaign on Thursday to join the party.

But, the report has now turned out a ruse as neither Muhammad nor commissioners have announced their resignation from PDP. The Deputy Governor said he’s loyal to the PDP and is not ready to leave.

In a statement on Thursday debunking the alleged report that he has dumped The PDP, the deputy governor said he never authored any letter to his ward chairman that he has left the PDP.

The statement signed by Abdullahi Abubakar, the Director of Press to the deputy governor, said Muhammad remains in PDP, and has not defected as being rumoured.

The statement said: “Our attention has been drawn to a letter purportedly issued in Sokoto that the Sokoto State Deputy Governor, Hon. Manir Dan’iya had resigned from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

“This is untrue and a blatant lie. Hon. Manir Dan’iya is still a bonafide member of the PDP, to which he reaffirm his unwavering loyalty and support.

“He is hereby dissociating himself from any such letter stating that he had left the PDP,”

Meanwhile, close watchers of what is going on in The Seat of the Caliphate , as the state is widely known told the magazine that the PDP would have been dealt a big blow if the deputy governor had left the party, few days to the presidential election.