A former governor of Katsina State, Alhaji Ibrahim Shema, officially switched his allegiance to the All Progressives Congress on Thursday.
This is just as the current governor, Dikko Radda, described Shema’s defection from the Peoples Democratic Party to the ruling party as homecoming.
Shema, who held office from 2007 to 2015 under the banner of the PDP, completed his registration at the Shema Ward party office in the Dutsin-ma Local Government Area.
He was warmly received into the APC and was issued his membership card by the state’s party chairman, Alhaji Sani Aliyu-Daura.
Aliyu-Daura thanked Radda and his predecessor, former Governor Aminu Masari, for their efforts in facilitating Shema’s defection to the APC.
In Dutsin-ma, Alhaji Jabiru Abdullahi-Tasuri, the Chief of Staff to Governor Radda, presented Shema with his membership card on behalf of the governor, as reported by NAN.
Abdullahi-Tasuri quoted the governor as saying that the party had achieved a significant milestone by welcoming such a prominent figure from the opposition.
“This marks a historic shift in the political landscape of the state, the defection is a homecoming and a reunion with political family members,” the governor said.
Radda reminisced about Shema and Masari’s past service under the leadership of the late former President Umaru Musa Yar’adua.
Shema, in his remarks, said his reason for joining the APC was to contribute to the development of both the state and the nation as a whole.
In reaction to Shema’s defection, Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser on Information and Strategy to President Bola Tinubu, succinctly remarked, “PDP’s big loss in Katsina, APC’s big gain.”