{"id":360517,"date":"2025-07-10T10:42:53","date_gmt":"2025-07-10T09:42:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.withinnigeria.com\/news\/?p=360517"},"modified":"2025-07-10T10:42:53","modified_gmt":"2025-07-10T09:42:53","slug":"zamfara-gov-lawal-speaks-on-leaving-pdp-amid-defection-rumour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.withinnigeria.com\/news\/2025\/07\/10\/zamfara-gov-lawal-speaks-on-leaving-pdp-amid-defection-rumour\/","title":{"rendered":"Zamfara gov, Lawal, speaks on leaving PDP amid defection rumour"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li><strong>This is even as the Governor reaffirmed his loyalty and commitment to the party, saying he has no plans to dump the party<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Governor Dauda Lawal of Zamfara State says the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.withinnigeria.com\/news\/2025\/07\/08\/wike-gave-each-delegate-30000-during-2022-pdp-presidential-primaries-dele-momodu\/\">Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)<\/a> would come out of the crisis bedevilling it as a more united and stronger entity.<\/p>\n<p>This is even as the Governor reaffirmed his loyalty and commitment to the party, saying he has no plans to dump the party.<\/p>\n<p>There has been widespread speculation that he is mulling a defection from the PDP to the All Progressives Congress (APC) or the African Democratic Congress (ADC).<\/p>\n<p>Speaking during an interview on Channels Television\u2019s Politics Today on Wednesday, Lawal said he remains a card-carrying member of the PDP, describing reports of imminent defection<br \/>\nas \u201cmere rumours\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFirst of all, I\u2019m glad that you said a rumour\u200a\u2014\u200athat APC, ADC and whatever political parties are calling on me to join their party,\u201d Lawal stated.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI made it clear that I am a PDP card-carrying member and I am still in PDP. I have no intention of going anywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Despite acknowledging ongoing internal disputes within the PDP, Governor Lawal said the party was actively addressing its issues and expressed optimism that unity would soon return.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe PDP has an internal crisis, no doubt, but we are working on resolving that already. It is just a matter of time before the dust settles,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>The governor also dismissed insinuations that he might be seeking political cover from the ruling APC to protect himself from state opposition forces, describing such narratives as unfounded.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll the forces in the opposition were there in 2023, and I defeated them. So why should I be scared of them now?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He took a swipe at prominent opposition figures in the state, including former governors Sani Yerima and Bello Matawalle, asserting confidence in his ability to defeat them again in the 2027 general elections.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is even as the Governor reaffirmed his loyalty and commitment to the party, saying he has no plans to dump the party Governor Dauda Lawal of Zamfara State says the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) would come out of the crisis bedevilling it as a more united and stronger entity. This is even as the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"2","single_blog_custom":"211693","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"1","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"1","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"1","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"0","show_inline_post_related":"1"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_bookmark_settings":{"override_bookmark_button":"0","override_show_bookmark_button":"0"},"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[91,697,38950,112,933],"class_list":["post-360517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national","tag-apc","tag-defection","tag-lawal","tag-pdp","tag-zamfara"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.4 (Yoast SEO v27.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Zamfara gov, Lawal, speaks on leaving PDP amid defection rumour<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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