Desmond Mgboh/ Kano
Kano State Governor Dr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje has issued a disclaimer to an allegation lodged by nPDP that it is being marginalized by the APC.
Ganduje, in Kano at an interactive session with the media on Monday, held that members of the nPDP who went to the APC party secretariat to lodge the complaint did not represent the majority of the members of the now defunct nPDP, adding that their exploit is an example of “corruption fighting back”.
The governor indicated that they have already returned to the same secretariat to refute the allegation, while listing some of the members of nPDP who are high profile members of the administration and cannot be said to be marginalized.
“The Senate President is from the new nPDP. He also has very important committees of the Senate of which he single-handedly approves the chairmen of these committees. That is not marginalization,” Ganduje said.
He recalled that the Speaker of the House of Representatives and several governors, including those of Kwara, Adamawa and Kano States, and hundreds of legislators are from the defunct nPDP, adding that such officers cannot be considered to be marginalized under the present dispensation.
“I believe that there must be something under ground that we don’t know yet. You know Mr. President is facing a difficult moment… Corruption is fighting back against the system. You’ll soon know why the issue of marginalization is coming up now. You will see that it is not marginalization. It is a case of corruption fighting back,” he stated.
On his projected five million votes for Buhari in Kano State in 2019, in spite of the fact that former Governor Kwankwaso and his loyalists are already shopping for another party, he said that their eventual exit or otherwise would not deter the realization of the 5 million votes in favour of the President.
He pointed out that President Buhari has contested four times for the Presidency before he was eventually elected in 2015, adding that in those past contests, even as an opposition member, he had always won his race in Kano single-handedly.
He reiterated that the President won his race single-handedly in the state even when the sitting governor of the state was from another political party, adding that his chances would be brighter in 2019 given that both the presidential candidate and the governor of the state are from the same political party.
“Of course, in politics there is always mobility. That is normal. So, it is not the issue of the former governor taking all his own paraphernalia to another party. It is the issue of the former governor, with some few individuals, moving away with him,” he said.
“That is why we are saying that we are praying, we are planning, and we are working hard to get a minimum of 5 million votes for Buhari in Kano, and we would get it. We are not saying that there would be no obstacles. Of course, there would be obstacles. Politics is about obstacles. But we would get it.”