Senator representing Kano central, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau, says he and his supporters were “manipulated” and betrayed by Presidential candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Dr. Rabiu Kwankwaso.
Shekarau stated this on Thursday in an interview with Channels Television.
Recalls that on Monday, the Shekarau officially defected to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from the NNPP — four months after joining the party from the All Progressives Congress (APC).
In May, the former Kano state governor left the APC following the inability of the party to settle the crisis between his faction and that of Abdullahi Ganduje, governor of Kano.
Speaking on why he left the NNPP, Shekarau said that the leader of the Kwankwasiyya movement deliberately delayed implementing the agreements they reached before he joined the party up to the time INEC closed receiving candidates.
He said, “We made our proposal as a group, as a movement together with all my political associations and we sat down with Rabiu Kwankwaso. I submitted my proposal and he accepted it. He said in one or three days he was going to prepare his own proposal and then I together with him will sit down to sort ourselves out and then harmonize and see what we could do for these electable people from various constituencies.
“He and I having governed Kano we sufficiently know all the key players regardless of the parties they belong.
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“I felt it was not a big deal to sit down to organize people from his and my camps, who are electable. We kept on waiting. I submitted this to him on the 10th of May and by 11th of May, I reminded. Meanwhile our own movement had taken a decision.”
Shekarau added that he was surprised to see hand written list of candidate released by the leadership of NNPP in the state.
He added, “The same 14th of May by midnight, we saw a list released by the party leadership of the state, hand written list of candidates and their constituencies. In fact, on the list released by May 18th, some constituencies had no name. The following morning I met him (Kwankwaso) and challenged the list.
“We said this is unacceptable because in the entire list except my name, no any other name from our own movement or our own association was reflected on the list.
“By 12th of August all the doors had been shut by INEC. There was no way you can make any substitution either at state level or national level. I had to call a meeting of my political associates to brief them as what we went through in three months.
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“To our surprise, two days later, my brother Rabiu Kwankwaso was on air on the Hausa Service of BBC, saying there was no way we could be attended because we joined the party when it was too late. A party we joined on 18th of May when candidates were being sorted out and primaries were being held?
“That is the least you can call it, betrayal, outright disregard, manipulation. Our guiding principle is the protection of our image.”
“Our guiding principle, which is known to all my political associates, is the protection of our image and integrity, and you can’t have your integrity protected if there is not going to be sincerity and if there is not going to be trust and truth.”
Asked if he was promised anything by the PDP, the senator said he did not join the party because of personal interests, adding that the PDP promised to be fair to his associates.
“There was not any promise or assurances except the assurances of being fair, sincere and trustworthy with the associates that we have,” he said.
“That is what we are looking for anywhere we move, Two things are our guiding principles — what kind of people are you interacting with and what kind of interaction are you promotion. Through our interactions with the PDP, we were satisfied.”
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