The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Katsina State is facing a political storm as a wave of defections rocking the party ushers in uncertainty over the political future of its self-proclaimed leader and a serial governorship contestant, Senator Yakubu Lado.
Lado, who first contested the governorship election in 2015 on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM) before defecting to the PDP, was the 2019 and 2023 governorship candidate of the party but lost to the candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
A few months after the 2023 elections, the battle of who controls the soul of the main opposition PDP in the state commenced between the former governor of the state, Ibrahim Shehu Shema, and Senator Lado, which metamorphosed into a leadership tussle that resulted in the party having two factions in the state.
Shema, who governed the state between 2007 to 2015 on the platform of the PDP, wanted to remain as the leader of the party considering the virtue of his previous position, but Lado sidelined him and picked Dr. Mustapha Inuwa as ‘Jagora’ (leader) of the party prior to the 2023 polls.
It was reliably gathered that Shema and his staunch supporters were vehemently against Inuwa’s presence in the party because of their long-standing feud that apparently landed them in court over Shema’s purported looting of the state’s treasury during his tenure as governor of the state.
Lado’s decision to appoint Inuwa, a former and longest serving Secretary to the State Government, as leader of the PDP in the state, did not go down well with Shema who eventually dumped the opposition party alongside his loyalists to the APC.
Notable Shema’s supporters who are now card-carrying members of APC include the current Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Hon. Bashir Tanimu Gambo; the Executive Director of Katsina Small Towns Water Supply and Sanitation Agency, Ibrahim Lawal Dankaba and Hamisu Gambo, Danlawan Katsina.
Others are the Special Adviser to Governor Dikko Umaru Radda on Local Government Inspectorate, Alhaji Lawal Ahmed Rufa’i Safana and the former PDP Treasurer, North-west Zone, who was also a former deputy governorship candidate in the state on the platform of PDP in 2015, Rabiu Gambo Bakori.
However, Mustapha Inuwa, who was the Director-General of Atiku/Lado 2023 Campaign, has stated publicly how he regretted supporting Lado’s governorship ambition, and announced plans to form a coalition against him.
“I regretted supporting Yakubu Lado as governorship candidate because he is not even qualified to be a counsellor. I swear, he is not qualified. Even if he is elected governor, we have not done justice for the Katsina people,” Inuwa said in an interview with journalists.
Following his recent feud with the 2023 PDP governorship candidate, Inuwa and his political lieutenants are working assiduously with the leadership of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the state to form a coalition in order to wrest power from the ruling APC in 2027.
A former National Secretary of the PDP, Senator Umar Ibrahim Tsauri; former senator representing Daura Zone, Ahmed Babba Kaita; the 2023 governorship running mate of Lado, Ahmed Aminu Yar’Adua, Hon. Sirajo Aminu Makera, Hon. Jamilu Mohammed Lion, Hon. Salisu Uli and Ahmed Musa Yar’Adua are the brains behind the formation of the coalition.
As a leader of the new political movement in Katsina, Inuwa has removed all PDP flags that hitherto enhanced the aesthetics at his political office along the Muhammadu Dikko Stadium in Katsina city, but it is still a political tourism centre for politicians within and outside the state.
In another dramatic political shift, a member of Lado’s kitchen cabinet and supporter of his age-long political ambition of becoming Katsina Governor, Hon. Lawal Audu, has also joined thousands of PDP supporters who dumped their political godfather for the ruling APC in the state.
Audu, who hails from Kankara, the country home of Senator Yakubu Lado, was elected in 2023 as the member representing Kankara in the state House of Assembly on the platform of the PDP but he recently pitched his tent with the APC.
Citing leadership squabbles, lingering legal battles and factions within the PDP as his reasons for defection, the lawmaker said the developments have not only eroded internal cohesion but have created parallel and conflicting authorities within the party.
Also, the 2019 deputy governorship candidate of the PDP and Lado’s running mate, Hon. Salisu Yusuf Majigiri, has also defected from the party to the APC on 8th May, 2025.
Elected on the platform of PDP in 2023 to represent Mashi/Dutsi Federal Constituency of Katsina State, Majigiri defected to the APC with two other PDP federal lawmakers in the state.
The two other defectors are Balarabe Dabai, representing Bakori/Danja Federal Constituency and Iliyasu Abubakar, representing Batsari, Safana and Danmusa Federal Constituency of the state.
In their separate letters, the lawmakers cited “division and crisis within the PDP” both at the state and national levels as reasons for their decision to join the APC. Their defection letters were read in the chamber of the House of Representatives by the Speaker, Hon. Tajudeen Abbas.
In his letter read at plenary by Abbas, Majigiri said he was leaving the PDP as a result of the “chronic crisis without cure” affecting the main opposition at the state and national level.
The Mashi/Dutsi Federal Constituency lawmaker said he had to seek an alternative platform to advance his political career and ensure adequate representation for his constituents.
On his part, Abubakar said he was leaving the PDP because of irreconcilable differences that had bedevilled the party and made it impossible for him to adequately represent his people, while Dabai expressed worry that the PDP has been writhing in crises since 2022 and all efforts to address them have failed, with party members bearing the brunt of many factions and litigations.
The defection of these lawmakers, ex-governor Shema and thousands of other registered PDP members to APC has left a buzz of renewed political alignment in the state which has been described by pundits as a tsunami that may end Senator Yakubu Lado’s political future.
Unarguably, Lado has contributed enormously in building and sustaining Katsina PDP through financial and material support, but analysts argued that he has hijacked the party’s structure both at state, local and ward levels by fixing his political lieutenants in key positions.
Investigations further revealed that all the PDP chairmen at the state, local government and ward levels, including other officials of the party in the state are Lado’s loyalists. The development that forced many members of the PDP to dump the party.
This, analysts said, is another factor militating against Lado’s political future in the state. Also, the emergence of Lado as the PDP 2023 governorship candidate created a serious disunity in the PDP that the party and standard-bearer could not resolve before the election.
His inability to reconcile the warring factions in the party impacted his chance in the 2023 election. With the polarization of the party, it was easy to predict that the party would end up a loser, which happened eventually as Lado came second in the election.
However, efforts to get a response from Lado over the current wave of mass defections rocking his party were futile. The state Chairman of the PDP, Nura Amadi Kurfi, who is one of his loyalists, also declined comment despite calls and text messages sent to his telephone line.
But an anonymous source within the PDP has downplayed the defection of the party’s stalwarts to the APC, insisting that it poses no threat to the opposition party ahead of the 2027 general election.
The source, who is an official of the party at the local government level, described the wave of defections rocking the party as a familiar political episode that holds little long-term consequences for the PDP.
He said: “The people of Katsina are naturally PDP members. They know the kind of positive impacts they enjoyed during the PDP-led government. What impact has the APC government given to the people?
“Those that defected to APC, what do you think they are going to do there if not for personal enrichment? There is hunger and anger in the land. We have seen it before–those who trooped out eventually came back. So, it is not a new thing to us.”
According to the source, “The leadership of our great party will speak when it matters most. Right now, it is about studying the moves on the board. You know politics is calculative and it is about timing.”
Meanwhile, in an apparent wider consultation on how to address the wave of defections and the crisis rocking Katsina PDP, Lado has been holding close-door meetings with his remaining supporters across the state.
But with these mass defections and self-inflicted crisis, what does the future hold for the newly inaugurated PDP Board of Trustees (BoT) member (Lado)? Will he defect like his close associates or remain to build the party ahead of the 2027 general election?