How Kwankwaso Betrayed my Trust – Sen. Shekarau
HOTPEN – Senator representing Kano Central at the National Assembly, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau has denied statement credited to Presidential candidate of New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP) , Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, that their demands when they defected to the party in May, 2022 were not met because they were late.
HotPen reports that in a recent interview over the wrangling between within the NNPP between the Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso group and Ibrahim Shekarau , Kwankwaso has said , Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had closed the window for submission of candidates when the Shekarau group submitted their demands.
This is coming on the heels of overtures from other political parties for Malam Ibrahim Shekarau to defect to their parties especially the Peoples Democratic Party where reports indicated that arrangement has been concluded for Shekarau to join the Wazirin Adamawa’ s train in PDP.
However, addressing his supporters and the Shura Council, the highest political decision making of Shekarau group, in Kano , on Monday, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau narrated how they were betrayed after they defected to NNPP.
Shekarau said they submitted their proposal and demands to Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso for over three months before INEC closed the window of submission of candidates.
He said a committee constituted by Kwankwaso on 16th May, 2022 with a time frame of 3 days to submit report failed to do that for over 3 months, despite his group efforts to address the issues before it gets out of hand.
According to him, the decision to dump All Progressives Congress (APC), was unanimous by his followers and the Shura Council considering that they were alienated for over 3 years in the party and their 10 demands were not attended to.
Shekarau said after his defection on May 5th , 2022, and was welcome to the party, apart from his own nomination form that was given to him at the venue, without request, no other member of his group was considered for any elective position.
‘’Shortly after, I sought an audience with Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso and I presented our proposal to him which he said was okay and in-line with his intention, Shekarau said.
He said on May 16th, 2022, Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso visited him and the proposal was discussed again and the idea of establishing a committee was muted with NNPP Kano governorship candidate, Abba Kabiru Yusuf as the chairman, Comrade Aminu Abdulsalam , Kawu Sumaila and Alhassan Kabiru Rurum all as members.
‘’However, surprisingly, on May 19th , a list of candidates was released by NNPP in Kano without consideration to our demand , hence I was forced to immediately proceed to Abuja the next day to see Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso over the issue.’’
Shekarau said , subsequent upon this, himself and Kwankwaso agreed to expand the committee to eight members with four others from their own group.
‘’They conceded 13 house of representatives membership to us and 31 state assembly members, among others.’’
‘’ Our team that joined the committee include Shura Council Chairman, Umar Musa Mustapha, Auwalu Danzabuwa, Abubakar Gwarmai and Abubakar Nasir Muhammad.’’
The two term Kano State Governor said despite the reconstitution of the committee and the time frame given them , Abba Kabiru Yusuf, the chairman of the committee and governorship candidate of NNPP refused to call for meeting talk-less of coming up with a resolution.
‘’At a point in time, I spoke to Kano chairman of NNPP, Haruna Doguwa over the foot dragging on the issue and he was even included as a member to fast track the harmonization of our candidates with their candidates but it did not work.’’
‘’ I also spoke with the national chairman of the party and Rufai Alkali so that the harmonization of the two lists of the two groups could be worked out but it never, until INEC closed the candidates list window of submission.
Shekarau , however, said since then various political parties have been inviting his group to join but they are still considering the offers.
He denied reports that dumping of the NNPP for a particular party is based on monetary inducement.
‘’For God sake , how can money be a determining factor for us to join a party.’’
He added that the Shura Council submitted resolution on the next move two days ago and a decision would be out soon.
‘’In a couple of days, we would announce our next move politically.’’