Presidency fears vote loss in Kano, moves to stop Shekarau’s defection
By Folarin Ademosu
The Presidency seems to have panicked over what might befall the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2023 elections as it moves to stop the planned defection of a former Kano state governor, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau.
According to reports, the presidency, Friday night, dispatched a private jet to airlift Shekarau to Abuja, the federal capital.
Senator Shakaru, currently representing Kano Central, has had a lingering dispute with incumbent Governor Abdullai Ganduje.
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The senator is rumoured to have concluded plans to defect to the fast-rising new party, the New Nigerian Peoples Party, (NNPP). The NNPP has its founder and leader, former governor Rabiu Kwakwanso,
A recent Supreme Court ruling, which vested control of the party in Ganduje’s hands, heightened the political supremacy battle between the governor’s and Shekarau’s factions of the party.
The ruling party had harvested chunks of vote from Kano state in the 2015 and 2019 presidential elections.
TheCornet reports that the electoral umpires, INEC returned 1,903,999 for Muhammed Buhari of the APC and 215,779 for Goodluck Jonathan, of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party in the 2015 presidential poll. In 2019, INEC returned 1,464,768 for Buhari, and 391,593 for PDP’s Atiku Abubakar.
