2023: Shekarau Dumps Kwankwaso’s NNPP

FORMER Governor of Kano State, Senator Ibrahim Shekarau, yesterday, parted ways with his predecessor, Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso after announcing his exit from the New Nigeria People’s Party, NNPP.

Shekarau said he is ending his political romance with Kwankwaso over what he described as alleged “betrayal of trust” by the NNPP Presidential candidate.

The former governor had in May, 2022, ended his relationship with Governor Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State when he decamped from the All Progressives Congress, APC, to join forces with Kwankwaso to fight APC and Ganduje in the state.

Addressing members of his Shura Advisory Council, drawn from 44 local government areas of Kano State, Shekarau said he exited NNPP because his supporters were not accommodated in elective positions in the party.

He said: “I will never be party to injustice. My integrity is paramount and no political position will make me compromise it and that of my people. I will not allow anyone to exploit his position or wealth to subvert my integrity.

“We reached an agreement to accommodate my supporters into various elective positions in the party, but until now, the committee set up could not accommodate one single person apart from the Senatorial slot given to me.

“I am a man of honour and integrity, but Kano NNPP Governorship candidate (Abba Kabir Yusuf), who was given the mandate to look at areas to accommodate my people into various elective positions, never did so or called for meeting; talk less of accepting my supporters to contest.

“Nobody will use money to change my conscience. I was a governor for eight years in Kano and people believed in my integrity. I am still leaving in a rented house in Abuja and did not allocate a single plot of land to myself when serving as Governor in Kano. I challenge anyone who knows my plot of land to expose it.

“All the agreement we had with him were betrayed by Kwankwaso and his boys. They did not accommodate one single person from my camp.”