They Went Into The Ring Without Making Careful Observation Of This – Ganduje Reveals The Mistake Used To Nail Kwankwaso, Kano Governor
Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has disclosed the strategy his party employed to challenge Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf of Kano State.
After the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Governor Yusuf, who ran on the platform of the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP), as the winner of the March 18 election, the APC rejected the result and took the matter to the tribunal.
The lower court nullified 165,663 votes of Yusuf, citing the absence of signatures or stamps by INEC. As a result, the governor’s votes were reduced to 853,939, while those of Nasir Ganuwa, his APC rival, remained at 890,705.
Despite the NNPP and Governor Yusuf challenging the ruling at the Appeal Court, they lost. The court ruled that Yusuf was not a member of the party under which he contested.
In response to the Appeal Court judgment, Ganduje revealed that Kwankwaso, the former governor of Kano State, was so eager to become president that he failed to notice that INEC had already closed the acceptance of nomination forms when he joined the NNPP
The APC national chairman asserted that they were aware of this development, and that’s why they waited for the right time to take action.
Ganduje said, “They were in PDP and when the crisis heated up and they were punched repeatedly they left the party and started groping for a platform. Unfortunately, they ran into a political party symbolizing fruits. They were given tickets because their leader was daydreaming; their leader was ambitious to be the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, but he was frightened.
“And because they desperately wanted a governor in Kano State, the party gave them a ticket to contest. But they made a serious blunder because when they joined the party, INEC had closed submission of nomination forms. But they were blind and uneducated. They went into the ring without making careful observation of this.
“They did not know that we laid in wait. We took the file, submitted it to Dr Nasiru Yusuf Gwuna and told him to hold it tight. When we filed a petition at the Kano governorship election tribunal, we told the court that they were not fielded by the party. We told the court that when INEC closed accepting names of candidates, they did not join the party.”
