Shekarau defects to APC

Politics

Former Kano state governor and presidential aspirant, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau, has dumped the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, for the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, citing alleged injustice meted out to him by his former party.

Announcing the development, his media aide, Alhaji Sule Yau Sule, told Daily Trust that “the decision to dump the PDP is based on the injustice meted to the former governor, who had been steering the party affairs for a long time”; and that this was concluded after a heated debate between him and his supporters.

He said: “I want to confirm to you that Shekarau has decided to defect from PDP to APC due to the injustice meted on him and his supporters by the PDP leadership.

“My boss has met with Kano State Governor, Dr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje in Abuja yesterday and concluded plans for our return to APC. He will meet with all the stakeholders concerned in Kano and then made his decamping public.”

He said Shekarau had made wider consultations among his supporters before he finally returned to his former party.

Although, he did not elaborate, Shekarau’s defection may be connected with the dissolution of the Kano State executives of the PDP by the party’s National Working Committee, which he and some other major stakeholders had rejected.

The stakeholders, including him, Ambassador Aminu Wali, Senator Bello Hayatu Gwarzo and their supporters had earlier stormed the PDP secretariat in Kano to protest against the dissolution.

There were insinuations that the decision to sack the Kano PDP executive was to accommodate the interest of ex-Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso who recently dumped the APC for PDP, threw his hat into the presidential contest and is working to dislodge Governor Abdullahi Ganduje by sponsoring a candidate from the opposition party.

Speaking on behalf of the three PDP big wings, Engineer Sarki Labaran, who led the crowd to the party secretariat, had said PDP stakeholders in the state would not accept the decision taken by the national headquarters regarding Kano executives.

Labaran said it was unfortunate that those at the helm of affairs in Abuja were trying to return the practice of impunity in the party several years after its departure.

He said: “Kano stakeholders will not accept this illegality. We will not allow some people to destroy the party under our watch. What the PDP national leadership did was illegal and unacceptable. We have rejected it in totality.”

Also speaking, a former speaker of Kano State House of Assembly, Alhaji Gambo Sallau, challenged the PDP national leadership to publicise the reasons that warranted the dissolution of the Kano State party executives.

He said: “If the PDP national leadership insists on the dissolution of Kano executives, the national leadership should also be dissolved because they were brought to office by the state executives.

“Unless this is done, we will not consider anybody as leader of PDP in Kano apart from Mas’ud El-Jibril Doguwa. Nobody has the power to dissolve the executives without following the laid down provisions of the party constitution.”

When contacted by Daily Trust, Senator Mas’ud El-Jibril Doguwa described the peaceful protest as a welcome development, noting that “Up till this time that I am speaking with you, nobody has communicated to me officially that I was removed from office.

“Constitutionally, I must be informed the type of offence I have committed and I must be given fair hearing. But in this case, I was not told about any offence. I am not aware of any panel set up by the PDP to investigate me on any offence. What the PDP did is illegality and we will not accept it.

“We should not be removed from office with disrespect and embarrassment. When we assumed office, there was no PDP in Kano. I sacrificed my business premises for the PDP, so I deserve respect from the party,” he said.

Both Kwankwaso and Shekarau’s groups have expressed concerns over Kano PDP crisis, which degenerates barely few weeks to the commencement of the primaries to elect the party’s candidates for the 2019 general election. critical stakeholders in the Kano State branch of the party have expressed thoughtful concerns

Speaking with Thisday in Abuja, some of the party’s state leaders, who pleaded anonymity, said Kano State is too strategic for the party in the coming elections, and advised the national leadership of the party to do everything within the shortest possible time to resolve the brewing crisis.

In a statement issued by the National Publicity Secretary of PDP, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, PDP had announced the dissolution of the state party’s structures and promised to constitute interim organs to run the party’s affairs in the state.

However, those who spoke said the crisis in Kano State PDP was a product of ‘’poor management’’ of dissatisfying issues, which cropped up as a result of the recent defection of Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso and his huge followers from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to PDP, a development that created disagreement between him and Shekarau.

“One of the mistakes PDP’s national leadership made was that before the defection of Senator Musa Kwankwaso and his followers from APC to PDP, the national leadership of PDP designed a template for sharing of the party’s structures in the state, without first discussing it with all stakeholders in the state,’’ one of the leaders of Kwankwassiyya, a political wing of Senator Kwankwaso said.

“In the template, 51 percent of the state’s structure was given to Senator Kwankwaso-led group, while Shekarau was given 49 per cent; the party also agreed on automatic party’s tickets for all defecting members of House of Representatives and State House of Assembly – Kwankwaso’s followers.

‘’With the template, it was obvious that Senator Musa Kwankwaso was highly favoured and expectedly, Mallam Shekarau and his group rejected the template.’’

On the point of disagreement, a member of the Shekarau-led group said they did not agree with the designed template because of the time factors and the legality or otherwise of removing those who were lawfully elected, without considering the political consequences.

The source added: “When the template was eventually discussed, even though we were not consulted before it was designed, we did not agree. First, we felt the timing was wrong, we just have few days to the primaries; we did not also agree on the proposed automatic tickets for the defecting lawmakers, and we advised that the tickets should be shared among the groups because that would mean giving all the tickets to Senator Kwankwaso’s group.

“Even the prepared ratio on how delegates should emerge, was also very contentious; but while we were still discussing the vexed issues, the national leadership issued a statement, claiming to have dissolved the state party’s executives, in spite of court order against it. Of cause, that was illegal.’’

Leaders of both Kwankwaso and Shekarau’s groups, who spoke with Thisday, said that the Uche Scondus-led NWC took the “unwise decision’’ without weighing the huge consequences of its action.

“The purported dissolution of the state executives directly affected over 11,898 members of the party in Kano State. At the ward level, we have about 11, 088 executives; at the local government level, we have 792 executives, and at the state level, we have 18 executive members, totalling over 11, 898 affected members’’, a member of Shekarau-led group stated.

“The intricacy of Kano politics is very complex and dangerous; people can fight with the last drop of their blood to protect their party’s positions. We cannot afford to create crisis in Kano PDP when general election is fast approaching.’’

On his part, one of the influential leaders of the Kwankwaso-led group said: “It is a common sense that the decision by the PDP national leadership to dissolve the state executives of our party was an unwise action.’’

Moving forward, both groups advised the national leadership of the party to do everything within the short possible time to resolve the vexed issues.

“The party must do everything to reconcile all groups within Kano PDP; if need be, they should review the template that will be acceptable to all challengers; we cannot afford crisis in Kano now. With the federal might of APC, we need the combination of Kwankwaso and Shekarau’s political forces to win the state’’, a political associate of Kwankwaso stated.

“More so, our leader, Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, who is eyeing the presidency cannot afford to have a crisis in his state; it is not good for him; everything must be done to resolve the unnecessary crisis.’’

The source added that followers of both groups had suffered huge political actions of APC in the past few years, saying “enough is now enough.’’

Nigerian Tribune/Daily Trust/Thisday

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