A governorship aspirant and chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Zamfara State, Sagir Hamida, was reportedly shot dead on Sunday evening by gunmen on Kaduna-Abuja Highway.
Hamida’s elder brother, Kabiru, told newsmen that the late politician was killed few kilometers to Abuja while returning from a social function.
Kabiru said the family was still gathering information from eye witnesses and the security authorities and therefore could not yet give detailed account of how his brother was killed.
He asked journalists to wait till Monday.
Late Hamida, an Abuja-based businessman and former director in the federal civil service, contested governorship of Zamfara State on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2011 but lost.
He later defected to the APC and ran for the governorship seat in 2019 but was reportedly short-changed by former Governor Abdulaziz Yari-led APC in the state.
He subsequently joined seven other aspirants to form the G-8 to protest and fight the Yari group up to the Supreme Court.
With the defection of the state governor, Bello Matawalle, from the PDP to the APC to fight Matawalle’s leadership of the party in the state, Hamida returned to the Yari faction as one of the leaders till his death.
Meanwhile, Governor Matawalle through his spokesman, Yusuf Idris, has reached to Hamida’s death.
“Saying his principal receiybrhe news of Hamida with shock, he said in a terse statement: “I can tell you, 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 shall furnish you on this tomorrow (Monday) when we get more details because right now, the governor is in Abuja attending a crucial meeting.”
