2027: Sokoto PDP Chairman Fires Back at Goronyo Over Resignation, ADC Appointment

By Animasahun Salman, Sokoto

The Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Sokoto State, Hon. Hayatu Tafida Aminu, has dismissed the resignation of former state chairman, Muhammad Bello Aliyu Goronyo, and his appointment as Director-General of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) governorship campaign as “not a surprise.”

Goronyo resigned from the PDP on August 30, 2026, and was barely hours later appointed Director-General of the campaign organisation of the ADC governorship candidate, Manir Muhammad Dan’Iya.

Reacting to the development while speaking with newsmen in his office on Tuesday, Aminu alleged that Goronyo had abandoned the PDP months before his formal resignation, accusing him of operating as an ADC member while still occupying the position of PDP chairman.

“Bello Goronyo was the former chairman of the PDP, but he left the party about nine months ago because, in the Nigerian context, he cannot be in two parties at the same time,” Aminu said.

“He was acting as a de facto member of ADC while also parading himself as chairman of the PDP, which is not possible.”

The PDP chairman described Goronyo’s appointment as the ADC campaign DG as merely the formalisation of what he claimed had been an existing political relationship.

“Goronyo has always been a loyal party member on their side of the ADC, but in disguise, because he attends ADC activities as well as parading himself as the party chairman of the PDP,” he alleged.

Aminu also used the development to declare that the prolonged factional crisis in the Sokoto PDP had been settled, insisting that his leadership controlled the authentic structure of the party in the state.

He said the party had rebuilt its structures from the ward level, conducted internal elections and subsequently produced candidates for the 2027 elections.

According to him, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had uploaded the candidates produced by his faction, which he said was evidence of its recognition.“Fortunately enough, INEC uploaded our candidates as the authentic members of the PDP and contestants. Everybody could see it at the INEC offices,” he said.

Aminu rejected claims by Goronyo’s faction that a court judgment did not recognise either of the competing groups as the authentic PDP structure in Sokoto.

“That is their own argument and their own interpretation of the judgment,” he said.

“But if they think they are authentic, why is he leaving the party? Why are they leaving the party?”

He further pointed to the movement of other prominent members linked to the rival faction to different political platforms, arguing that their actions amounted to an admission that they had abandoned the PDP.

Despite the increasingly heated political exchange, Aminu said the PDP would not take Goronyo to court over his resignation or subsequent appointment by the ADC.

“We do not intend taking any legal action against him or the other people of the so-called PDP,” he said.

The chairman, however, acknowledged Goronyo’s past influence on his political career, describing the former chairman as his former boss.

“He was my boss actually. I was in the PDP before under his leadership of the PDP, when we were together. All of us, I even contested under his leadership then,” Aminu said.

Aminu insisted that Goronyo’s exit would not weaken the PDP ahead of the 2027 elections, declaring that the party remained united under his leadership.

“The PDP is one, under the leadership of Umaru Bature, who is our National Secretary, and I, Hayatu Tafida, as the chairman. We do not have any other faction of the PDP,” he said.

Goronyo’s exit and his immediate emergence as Dan’Iya’s campaign DG have nevertheless intensified the political realignment in Sokoto, with the 2027 governorship contest increasingly shaping up as a battle for influential political blocs and former party heavyweights.