Nigerian Democratic Congress, NDC, Rabiu Kwankwaso has kicked against a reported move by leadership of the party to drop some party candidates loyal to Kwankwaso.
NDC has reportedly replaced some of the candidates earlier submitted by the Kwankwasiyya faction in Kano State, over an alleged breach of a power-sharing agreement.
A document purportedly signed by Kano State Chairman of the party, Hon. Hussaini Isah Mairiga, said the changes were made to reflect the earlier agreement on the distribution of party positions and elective tickets between the existing NDC structure and the Kwankwasiyya bloc.
The document, copied to the NDC National Leader, Senator Seriake Dickson, leader of Kwankwasiyya, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso and the party’s North-West Zonal Chairman, changed the list of both federal and state house assembly candidates.
The national spokesperson of the Kwankwassiyya Movement, Habib Mai-Lemo, rejected the document when contacted on Monday, insisting that due processes were followed before aspirants from the Kwankwaso camp emerged candidates.
Expressing shock at the development, Mai-Lemo said the Kwankwassiyya Movement will for the moment, treat the report as a rumour, noting that the state chairman of the party and the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC were part of the processes that produced the affected candidates.
“I also saw on social media that some candidates are being dropped a week after the primaries were conducted,” he said.
“It wasn’t Kwankwaso who sold nomination forms, it was the party and therefore processes were followed either through consensus or primary election.
“Every candidate was involved in the process from start to finish. “While the processes were going on we never got any complaints from anybody. We didn’t block nobody to buy the forms because the first place we didn’t sell the forms.
“All the candidates went through due processes. “We are waiting to see if it is true or not, we don’t know where this issue is coming from as we have not received a copy of the letter that is supposedly signed by the State Chairman of the NDC”.
“We know the state played a part in the process. He was present on the day of consensus, even INEC was present so for now, we are treating it as a rumour”.
