UPDATED: Kano 2027: Play along, Kwankwaso tells supporters under pressure to defect

(Editor’s Note: We wrongly interpreted Mr Kwankwaso’s statement in Hausa to mean he was endorsing his supporters’ defection to the APC. That error, which is regretted, has been corrected in this copy.)

The former Kano State Governor, Rabiu Kwankwaso, has advised his supporters, who are being pressured to join a political movement in the All Progressives Congress (APC), to sign any document indicating their agreement to do so.

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Mr Kwankwaso, leader of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP), spoke in Hausa on Tuesday in Kano while addressing some of his supporters. He described the movement his supporters are being pressured to join as the Gandujiyya movement of former APC national chairman, Abdullahi Ganduje.

Although Mr Kwakwanso repeatedly referred to the Gandujiyya movement, the statement is believed to refer to the pressure on many of his supporters to join the APC, alongside the state governor, Abba Yusuf.

Mr Kwankwaso stated that he was aware that some NNPP members holding elective or appointive offices in the state were being pressured. He said some of these officeholders were being asked to sign documents indicating that they agreed to defect to the Gandujiyya movement.

The former Kano governor urged such NNPP members to sign the documents so they do not suffer any victimisation by the state government.

“Several of our supporters who currently hold political appointments, as well as members of the State Assembly, have reached out to me in distress,” he said in Hausa, “Many of them have been unable to sleep at night; some have reportedly been hospitalised, receiving medical treatment, while others are showing signs of severe emotional strain”.

“After consulting closely with my associates, we agreed, purely in the interest of easing tension and protecting the well-being of our supporters, that anyone who is asked to sign such documents should do so.”

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He said all these were happening even when intense politicking had not commenced in the state for the 2027 general election.

PREMIUM TIMES has reported on the infighting in the NNPP, the party on whose platform Mr Yusuf was elected as governor.

READ ALSO: Kwankwaso’s son, other Kano commissioners vacate offices, ahead of planned defection, cabinet reshuffle

Messrs Yusuf, Ganduje and Kwankwaso were allies, with Mr Ganduje serving as deputy governor when Mr Kwankwaso was Kano governor. However, Mr Ganduje, as Kano governor, joined the APC and rose within its ranks to become its national chairman, a position he vacated last year.

The 2023 governorship election in Kano was widely seen as a battle between Mr Kwankwaso’s Kwankwasiyya movement (NNPP) and Mr Ganduje’s Gandujiyya movement (APC).

The current governor, Mr Yusuf, a close ally of Mr Kwankwaso, is reportedly planning to defect to the APC, along with many state and federal lawmakers in Kano, as well as other NNPP members.

Mr Kwanwaso has, however, insisted that he will not defect to the APC or any other party that does not include him in its presidential ticket for the 2027 presidential election.