According to the Shekarau’s supporters, the list submitted by the NNPP to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) consist mainly of Kwankwaso’s supporters.
Ishaya Ibrahim, News Editor
The new alliance between former governors of Kano State, Rabiu Kwankwaso and Ibrahim Shekarau, appears threatened. The angst is the perceived exclusion of Shekarau’s supporters from the sharing of tickets in the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP).
Shekarau, a two-term former governor of Kano State and current senator for Kano Central, defected from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to the NNPP with his supporters in June.
While Kwankwaso picked the presidential flag of the NNPP, Shekarau was given an automatic senatorial ticket. But many of Shekarau’s supporters claimed that beside the senatorial ticket given to their principal, they did more get any. Rather, the Kwankwaso’s group of the NNPP cornered most of the federal and state legislative tickets, they said.
According to the Shekarau’s supporters, the list submitted by the NNPP to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) consist mainly of Kwankwaso’s supporters.
Reporting by Daily Trust reveals that Shekarau and his associates had continually demanded that the party implement the terms of agreement it reached with them before their defection, among which was nomination ticket for an unspecified number of the former governor’s associates.
The report noted that following the official closure of substitution of candidates by the electoral umpire and the NNPP not yielding to Shekarau’s demand, the tension aggravated with many other political parties including the APC and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) reaching out to Shekarau to consider joining them.
An associate of the former governor, who is also a member of the Shura Council, Shekarau’s structure highest decision-making body, told a Daily Trust correspondent that the automatic ticket offered Shekarau to return to the senate was not part of the demands on the templates they submitted to the NNPP before crossover to the party.
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Spokesman for Shekarau, Dr. Sule Yau Sule, was quoted by Daily Trust saying it was true that both the APC and PDP had been making overtures to his boss and it was based on that the meeting of the Shura Council was held on Sunday where Shekarau briefed members of the council on the proposals from both parties and the challenges with the NNPP.
Sule said at the meeting, several people spoke for and against joining both the PDP and the APC and afterwards a 30-member committee was set up to look into the development and recommend way forward.
“The 30-member committee will present its recommendations this Thursday. So, it is after that our next line of action will be made public,” he said, noting that the Council is also considering reaching out to the national leadership of the NNPP.
“As such, it is not entirely true that we are mulling exit,” Sule added.
He said the presidential candidate of the PDP, Atiku Abubakar and the party’s national chairman, Iyorchia Ayu, as well as the vice presidential candidate of the APC had met with Shekarau in the last few weeks with their different proposals, adding that the presidential candidate of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is also billed to meet with Shekarau later this week on the same issue.
Meanwhile, efforts to get a reaction from the chairman of the NNPP in Kano, Honourable Umar Haruna Doguwa, was not successful as of the time of filing this report.
Calls to his number did not connect while a text message sent to the number has not been responded to as of the time of filing this report.
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