The secretary to the Zamfara government, Abubakar Nakwada, says the ruling All Progressives Congress is targeting 400,000 additional members in the ongoing e-membership registration.

The SSG urged Zamfara residents to take advantage of the exercise and actively participate in the e-registration.

Mr Nakwada, in a statement in Gusau on Tuesday by his senior special assistant on media, Sulaiman Tudu, described Mr Lawal’s defection to the APC as a great hope for the party’s victory in the 2027 general elections.

Mr Lawal, through his deputy, Mani Mummuni, announced his defection from the PDP to the APC in Gusau on Monday after a stakeholders’ consultation.

Mr Nakwada said, “We target 400,000 additional progressive members from Zamfara in the next 17 days.”

He noted that Mr Lawal’s decision to leave the PDP for the APC was due to its irreconcilable internal crisis.

“The governor’s decision to join APC was reached during a stakeholders’ meeting chaired by the state deputy governor.

“Governor Lawal had earlier launched a statewide stakeholders’ engagement under a committee led by an elder statesman, Alhaji Salihu Mai Buhu-Gummi, to chart the state’s next political course amidst PDP’s deepening crisis and INEC’s looming timelines for the 2027 general elections.

“The majority of the stakeholders advised the governor to join APC, citing the need for unity and the interest of bringing development to the state,” the SSG said.

According to him, following collective input and careful consideration, including the need for elite consensus to address the state’s security challenges, the governor decided to join the APC.

“The APC membership e-registration will reopen tomorrow. I, therefore, urge residents of the state to come out en masse to register to surpass the 400,000 target,” he advised.

Mr Nakwada added that all Zamfara government’s executive members and political appointees fully supported Mr Lawal’s decision to join the APC.

(NAN)