Kwankwaso Speaks On Defection To APC

OpenLife Nigeria reports that Mohammed Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso, a Nigerian politician who served as governor of Kano state from 1999 to 2003 as well as 2011 to 2015 and national leader of the New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP, has spoken about growing discussions on defecting to the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC.

The Kano State Public Relations Officer of the All Progressives Congress, Ahmed Aruwa, had dismissed remarks by Kwankwaso, that he was ready to return to the APC under certain conditions.

Aruwa said that Kwankwaso’s claims were misleading and unacceptable, insisting that the APC neither sought nor welcomed his return.

He added that the proper way to join a political party was through formal procedures, not by issuing public demands.

“He disregarded the fact that joining a party has proper channels and procedures. If Kwankwaso wants to return, he knows how to formally convey that, not through public conditions,” Aruwa said.

“The conditions we are hearing, that our governorship ticket should be handed over to him or his candidate, are totally unacceptable. The APC already has strong aspirants — Senator Barau Jibrin, Dr Nasiru Yusuf Gawuna and AA Zaura, among others. There is no vacancy for Kwankwaso’s conditions,” he added.

But in a counter-reaction, Kwankwaso’s long-time ally, Buba Galadima, said the former governor had no plan to join the APC, stressing that his comments had been misinterpreted.

“Nobody will tell Kwankwaso politics. I believe there is a merger, but we are not in a hurry to merge with any party,” Galadima said.

According to him, Kwankwaso was only responding to agitations from some of his NNPP members who were pushing to defect to the APC.

But reacting to the series of insinuations in the public space, Kwankwaso said:

We have been alerted to some online statements suggesting that we have submitted a letter of intent to join a political party in the country.

We would like to clarify that we have not made any such submission to any party.

The public is therefore advised to stay informed of any further information regarding our matter through the established official channels. – RMK