Alhaji Sagir Hamida, an APC governorship aspirant in Zamfara in the 2019 governorship election, was killed by unknown gunmen on Sunday evening, according to a family source.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) learned from the deceased’s elder brother, Kabiru Hamida, that Sagir was killed while returning from the weekend near Abuja.
Kabiru, who stated that family members were still gathering information from authorities and possible eyewitnesses, explained that details would not be available until Monday.
According to NAN, Sagir Hamida, an Abuja-based businessman and former federal civil servant, ran for governor of Zamfara under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2011 but lost in the party’s primary election.
He later defected to the APC and ran for governor in 2019 but was allegedly short-changed by the former governor Abdulaziz Yari-led APC in the state, prompting him to form the G-8, which protested and fought the Yari group all the way to the Supreme Court.
With the defection of the state governor, Alhaji Bello Matawalle, from the PDP to the APC, Hamida returned to the Yari faction of the APC in the state to fight Matawalle’s leadership of the party in the state, a position he held until his death.
Malam Yusuf Idris, the governor’s Director-General of Media, also spoke about the development, telling NAN that the governor was taken aback by the news.
“I can tell you that my principal is still in shock since the news was broken to him that one of the illustrious sons of the state was killed; we will update you tomorrow when we have more details because the governor is currently in Abuja attending a crucial meeting,” Idris said.