Francis Sardauna in Katsina 

The Katsina State Governor, Dikko Umaru Radda, was caught in a mix of confusion as he declared Katsina as the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) state during the flag-off of the state’s local government election billed for February 15, 2025.

Radda, who was elected on the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) during the 2023 general election, goofed at the event held in Ingawa, the headquarters of Ingawa Local Government on Sunday.

The governor, who has been a member of the party since 2014 when it was formed, said: “On behalf of our candidates, I want to assure our President, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu that Katsina is a PDP state and will continue to be a PDP state.”

But APC stalwarts on the event’s podium quickly nudged Governor Radda to call his attention to what they believed was a slip of the tongue when he appeared to have realized his error.

At the mega rally to present flags to APC chairmanship and councillorship candidates for the February poll, the governor quickly corrected what his political footsoldiers termed as a slip of the tongue. 

However, it was clear that the seeming error had already gone viral on social media, live streaming platforms and national television stations that televised the event live.

Though Radda’s statement appears to be a slip of the tongue, analysts say his statement was true considering the 2023 presidential election which was swept by the PDP.

Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the PDP defeated President Bola Tinubu with a wide margin of 489,045 votes against 482,283.

Earlier, the National Chairman of the APC, received “over 40,000” defectors from various political parties into the ruling party ahead of the local government poll.

He said: “You can now testify that APC is the greatest party in Nigeria. Also, we have seen thousands of ‘decampees’ from not only PDP, NNPP, Acord party and PRP. We assure you that our party is the only party that maintains internal democracy.  

“Our party is the only party that provides prosperity and development to the people of Nigeria. Therefore, we have to salute our President, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for his transformation of all the important policies of Nigeria.”

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