Contrary to some media reports on Tuesday, Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu of Niger State has declared that he remains a member of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, denying ever decamping to the All Progressives Congress, APC.

Aliyu, who spoke through his chief press secretary, Danladi Ndayebo, said that a decision had not been taken on the fate of governors who left the ruling party to form a faction known as the New PDP and that he was shocked by reports that he had joined the APC.

In a statement he issued, Ndayebo said that Aliyu was not present at the meeting in Abuja where the merger agreement was sealed and signed, an indication that he was not part of the deal.

Aliyu said that reconciliatory talks were still going on between the Abubakar Baraje – led PDP faction and President Goodluck Jonathan and that the wise thing to do was to allow that process to end before taking a decision on the next step for the new group.

Even then, the interim chairman APC in Niger State, Bako Shetima has said that governor Aliyu was welcome in the party as long as he does not expect any preferential treatment.

“We learnt of the development and our party will be ready to accept them into the party. The G7 governors have been talking with our leaders at the national level. They are welcome. Our doors are widely open,” Shetima told journalists in Minna on Tuesday

Five of the G7 governors who left the PDP for the New PDP were at the ceremony in the residence of Rabiu Kwankwaso, governor of Kano State, where a merger between the APC and breakaway group was formalised.

The five are the host, Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State, Abdufatah Ahmed of Kwara State, Magatakarda Wamakko of Sokoto State and  Murtala Nyarko of Adamawa State.

Absent were Aliyu and Sule Lamido of Jigawa State.