Reports from Kebbi State say the former minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Adamu Aliero, who ran for a senate seat in the 2011 general election on the platform of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC); the gubernatorial candidate of the CPC, Abubakar Malam; and the gubernatorial candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in last April’s governorship election Kabiru Turaki (SAN),  have all defected to the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

President Goodluck Jonathan is in Birnin Kebbi, the state capital, to receive the decampees and also present the party’s flag to its gubernatorial candidate, the recently ousted governor of the state, Saidu Dakingari.

Mr. Dakingari was recently sacked by the Supreme Court which also ordered a fresh election billed for this Saturday. 

The defection of the candidates of the main political parties means Mr. Dakingari would definitely reclaim his mandate unchallenged.

Sources in Birnin Kebbi told Premium Times that Vice President Namadi Sambo ‘encouraged’ the two opposition candidates to decamp to the ruling party with a promise to “settle” them adequately.

Mr. Aliero, a former governor of the state, was a member of the All Nigeria Peoples Party before defecting to the PDP close to the end of his tenure. He defected to the CPC after falling out with the ruling party.