Shekarau said he left PDP for APC after Kwankwaso, who recently joined the party, hijacked party structure in Kano.
Ex-Governor of Kano state, Ibrahim Shekarau has said he dumped the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, because Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso hijacked the party structure in Kano.
Shekarau made this known to his supporters in Kano after he was welcomed to the All Progressive Congress, APC, by the incumbent governor, Abdullahi Ganduje and the national chairman of the ruling party, Adams Oshiomhole.
In a detailed speech, Shekarau narrated what transpired between July 2018 when Kwankwanso dumped the APC for PDP and August 30, 2018 till the time he decided to quit the party.
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The former governor claimed that Kwankwaso demanded the control of the party structure in Kano state with high demands, which were met by the national chairman of the PDP.
Shekarau further claimed that Kwankwaso literally demanded for 51% control of the PDP structure in Kano and he was obliged by PDP chairman, Uche Secondus.
Read all Shekarau said about Kwankwaso
“I wish to first of all, give some little background, sometime in July this year, a number of APC leaders decided to cross over from APC to PDP.
“In appreciation, our party, the PDP set up a Committee of Integration and Contact led by former governor of Cross River state, His Excellency, Liyel Imoke.
“Unfortunately, all of these procedures were violated, they were not observed they were not respected. The technical committee under Liyel Imoke, five of them, reported directly to the national chairman some agreement signed between them and members of the Reformed APC.
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“Some of these agreements included, for example, in Kano, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso was granted the following privileges: 51 percent of the structure of the leadership of the party; while the existing PDP members should take 49 percent. They also granted to Kwankwaso that all national and state legislators who come with him should have automatic ticket to contest 2019 election.
“We called a meeting of the stakeholders in the state and we vehemently disagreed. We passed a resolution on the 25th of August and we put it in writing, addressed to the national chairman that we have not agreed with the contents of the said agreement.
“We wrote a letter of protest which we titled ‘Integration of PDP Returnees Members.’ We disagreed, we wrote, we would be given copies for all the media people to see.
“Kwankwaso said that he wanted 51 percent and we said we are not willing to agree to that. This deliberation could not continue. We held four separate meetings with Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso and the committee of Liyel Imoke,” he said.
“We went as far as granting delegates at the Ward level that would be shared between Aminu Wali’s group, my group and Kwankwaso’s group; but Kwankwaso said he does not recognize such, what he is after is that he would be granted 51 percent of the party structure at all levels; which we said we would not tolerate.
“On the basis of this, the national chairman decided that we of the PDP in Kano are not cooperating. He felt we are not cooperating for unconstitutional act, because of this, he felt we have disagreed with the party and therefore, he pronounced the dissolution of the party structure in Kano which is unconstitutional; and we said we didn’t recognise it.
“To make it worse, when he constituted the caretaker committee, the seven-member caretaker committee were all nominees of Dr. Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso and they are all from Kano. This has violated many constitutional provisions.
“The tradition of the party indicates that whenever it is necessary or constitutionally right to form a caretaker committee in a state, the chairman and secretary of the committee must come from outside the state.
“In this case, that was not done. All the members of that committee are from the Kwankwaso’s camp of the Kwankwasiyya. We said we cannot take this. We gave the party a deadline to restore the unconstitutional act of returning back the elected officers of the party. We also demanded that we don’t recognize automatic ticket because it is unconstitutional; it is against the spirit of democracy.”
At this point, Shekarau said he considered three options; either to remain in PDP under “this crazy, unconstitutional, unacceptable arrangement, which does not go down well with our people, or we abandon political activities or we move to another political party.”
Kwankwaso joins race to battle Buhari for President in 2019
Former Kano State governor, Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso, has officially declared his intention to run for president in the 2019 presidential election.
The former governor made his anticipated announcement to a sea of supporters at Chida Hotel in Utako, Abuja, on Wednesday, August 29, 2018.
In his declaration speech, the serving lawmaker said he'll offer Nigerians something different from the crop of leaders who created the country's present problems. He said he'll lead the country into a future that all Nigerians can be equally proud of.
He said, "Today, I declare that I am going to vie for the office of President Federal Republic of Nigeria under the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party.