Bafarawa shocks APC, returns to PDP

. Says ‘my supporters want me back’
Former Governor of Sokoto State, Attahiru Bafarawa and members of his faction in the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Sokoto, defected to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Media Assistant to Bafarawa, Alhaji Yusuf Dingyadi, disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Sokoto. Dingyadi, also the state publicity secretary of the Bafarawa’s faction of APC, said that the decision was taken on Saturday after a meeting with Bafarawa and former Kano State Governor, Ibrahim Shekarau.
Dingyadi said the meeting was also attended by supporters of Bafarawa in the three parties, who merged to form the APC.
According to Dingyadi, the leaders of the former governor’s faction of the APC had been asked to go back to the 23 local government areas in the state for further consultation. State secretary of the Governor Aliyu Wamakko- led faction of the APC, Alhaji Ahmed Aliyu, told NAN that it was a welcome development.
“It is a good omen for the APC in Sokoto state and at the national level. APC will now be stronger and united. “Bafarawa is afraid of Wamakko. He had since been working for PDP.
Only his body was in APC, but his heart was already in the PDP,’’ said Aliyu, who is also the health commissioner.
As at the time Bafarawa’s defection was announced, the leaderships of defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP) and also Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) throughout the 23 local government areas of the state had officially defected to the APC.
It would be recalled that Wamakko had defected to the APC from the PDP, although his deputy, Alhaji Mukhtari Shagari, refused to join him in the APC.
The party (APC) in the state had since been factionalised into two, with two separate state headquarters and different interim state caretaker leaderships. In 1999 Bafarawa was elected governor of Sokoto State on the platform of the ANPP, and was reelected in 2003.
He founded the Democratic People’s Party (DPP) and became its presidential candidate at the 2007 presidential elections in Nigeria.
In the run up to the 2011 general election, he joined ACN and was one of its presidential aspirants before the emergence of Nuhu Ribadu as the party’s candidate.