Following reports that Governor Bello Matawalle of Zamfara state is about to decamp to the ruling APC, six governors of the opposition PDP have visited the bandit troubled state in an effort to persuade him from leaving the party.
The governors who visited him in Government House Gasua on Wednesday include, Nyesom Wike of Rivers, Seyi Makinde of Oyo, Darius Ishaku of Taraba, Bala Mohammed of Bauchi, Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto, and Umar Fintiri of Adamawa.
They spent several hours with Matawalle who was alleged to have concluded arrangements to defect to the APC, persuading him not to dump the PDP, according to sources familiar with what transpired at the meeting.
Rivers state governor, Wike who spoke during the visit, expressed surprise that after intimidating Matawalle for months, APC members now want the governor to join their party.
He advised Matawalle not to lose sleep because of insecurity in the state as the situation existed before he became governor of the state.
While describing the N50m donated by the APC to the victims of the fire incident as a Greek gift, the Rivers state governor urged Matawalle not to receive the opposition again.
Wike said, “I can’t understand why a party which declared Zamfara a no-fly zone is coming to woo the governor.”
“The insecurity problem started before you became the governor, so, nobody can come and use insecurity to intimidate you.”
Matawalle who expressed happiness with the visit by the PDP governors, described it as timely following the Gusau market incident.
He further noted that he was almost abandoned by the PDP governors as, “a crying child abandoned by his mother is likely to take food from a street beggar.”
The visit of the PDP Governors followed a similar visit by three APC governors -Atiku Bagudu (Kebbi), Badaru Abubakar (Jigawa), and Mai Mala Buni (Yobe).
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