28th April, 2011
Governor Mahmuda Shinkafi of Zamfara State who is also an in-law to former military President Ibrahim Babangida, is one of the state chief executives who will not return to the office on 29, May.
Shinkafi, who is married to Aisha, the first daughter of the self-styled evil genius, lost his second term bid to Alhaji Abdulazeez Abubakar, the All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP, governorship candidate in the state.
Results declared by Professor Idris Funtua, the Returning Officer for the State indicated that Shinkafi who contested on the platform of PDP scored 460,656 votes against 514,962 votes scored by the ANPP candidate.
P.M.NEWS gathered that the result was announced amidst tight security as a result of the tension created by the earlier false announcement on the state radio station yesterday that Shinkafi has won the election.
The ANPP also won majority of seats in the State House of Assembly, having won 13 out of the 24 seats in the Assembly while the PDP got 11 seats.
Zamfara was an ANPP stronghold from 1999 to 2007 when former Governor Ahmed Yerima served as the Governor of the state.
Shinkafi who served as Yerima’s deputy for the two tenures succeeded him in 2007. But the former Governor and Shinkafi fell out over the battle to control the structure of ANPP in the state.
This led to the governor’s defection to the PDP soon after he married Babangida’s daughter in 2008.
Shinkafi defected to the PDP with all members of the State House of Assembly in a move interpreted as a way of completely decapitating the ANPP.
But Yerima, who also got re-elected as a Senator has been rebuilding the structure of the party and the success recorded by ANPP in the gubernatorial is the result of that effort.
The defeat of Shinkafi, many said, is also evident that Yerima who is the first chief executive to introduce Sharia law is still in control of the political structure of the state.
Aisha married Shinkafi in 2008 after dumping her first husband, Basheer Garba. She immediately assumed the status of first lady of Zamfara State as she successfully overthrew the former wife of the governor who was playing the role.
-Oluokun Ayorinde/Abuja