Gusau — As if he had premonition that the court action challenging his switch of allegiance from ANPP to the PDP would go in his favour, Governor Mahmuda Aliyu Shinkafi, who spoke exclusively to the LEADERSHIP barely three days before the landmark judgment, said there was no moral burden arising from his decamping from the ANPP to the PDP.

"I have said time and again that the decision to jump ship was not unilateral; it was done after extensive consultations with major stakeholders in the Zamfara project. You know Zamfara is 97 percent ANPP. But if you look at it, we are the only state left in the North-west Zone that was in opposition.

"So the stakeholders met and decided that it was high time we joined the mainstream. So, when the PDP came, we embraced it wholly", he had rationalised.

On whether his switch supports postulations that Nigeria is tilting towards a one-party state, Shinkafi reasoned: "Look at what happened in Edo and Ekiti states, we lost to the Action Congress and Labour party. In a political context, you go to get more and more supporters to your side."

He said the constitution provides for freedom of association and one is free to join any association or not to join.

On why Zamfara State has not witnessed any religious insurrection such as the Boko Haram despite the fact that it was first to establish the sharia code, the governor said Zamfara was not a fertile ground for the monitoring of any form of religious fundamentalism.

He said ab initio, government embarked on massive enlightenment exercise on the desirability for the sharia legal system in the state.

He added that there was misguiding in certain quarters and some were even mischievous in the way news about its implementation was reported.

He reiterated that sharia is about moral teachings of the Islamic religion, adding that sharia is for Muslims.

He said as time went by, people began to appreciate the good virtues, which included moral rectitude such as ban on fornication, drug addition, gambling and cheating. All the four jurisdictions of the sharia are the same with that of the Christian commandment.

He said there are many Christian businessmen in the state and some have even embraced the sharia legal system because they were sure they would get prompt justice. That is the beauty of it.

"People have been co-habiting peacefully ever since and Zamfara cannot be a breeding ground for religious insurgents," he said.