Governor Abba Yusuf of Kano State, a major commercial and political centre in northwestern Nigeria, has officially rejoined the All Progressives Congress (APC), Nigeria’s ruling party at the federal level.
Okay News reports that the defection was announced on Monday, 26 January 2026, during an event at the Coronation Hall inside the Kano Government House in Kano, the state capital.
The governor was formally received into the APC by key party figures, including Abdullahi Ganduje, a former governor of Kano State and a past national chairman of the APC, as well as Nigeria’s Deputy President of the Senate, Barau Jibrin, who represents Kano South in the National Assembly, Nigeria’s federal parliament.
Others present included Yusuf Ata, Nigeria’s Minister of State for Housing and Urban Development, and other APC leaders who welcomed the governor back into the party.
Yusuf said his decision to return to the APC was driven by the need to work more closely with the Federal Government under Nigeria’s President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, as his administration pursues its programmes and projects.
The governor was elected in 2023 on the platform of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), a relatively new political party that gained ground in Kano during the last election cycle.
In recent days, Yusuf had also been reported to have left the NNPP alongside several members of the Kano State House of Assembly, the state legislature, and some members of Nigeria’s House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the National Assembly.
Further details on the defection and its political implications in Kano and beyond were still emerging as of the time of this report.
