PDP’s stance on Kano chapter crisis threatens Atiku’s ambition – Abacha

A factional governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Kano, Mohammad Sani Abacha, has said that the presidential ambition of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar is at risk with the party’s stance on the crisis in the state’s chapter.

The state’s chapter of the party is neck deep in a crisis as two camps are claiming ownership. One faction is led by Shehu Wada Sagagi and the other by Bello Hayatu Gwarzo.

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In parallel governorship primaries in May, Abacha emerged as the party’s candidate from Sagagi’s camp, while Gwarzo’s camp produced Sadiq Wali.

But PDP’s headquarters submitted Wali’s name to the INEC as its governorship candidate in Kano, a decision which Abacha filed a suit challenging.

INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, told journalists in Kano last week that the commission monitored the primary conducted by the Sagagi-led state executive that produced Abacha.

He, however, added that before the submission of names, a judgment obtained by Gwarzo’s camp changed the dimension; hence the display of Wali’s name as the candidate of PDP in Kano.

But in a statement, Maniru Mailafiya, the spokesman of Abacha’s campaign team, said the judgment under reference was a Court of Appeal judgment that overturned a High Court judgment recognising who belonged to the Sagagi faction that represented Kano at the party’s presidential primary.

The appellate court had held, in court documents sighted by our correspondent, that the High Court lacked the jurisdiction to entertain the suit filed by the delegates from Sagagi’s faction and as such that the validation of the delegates was null and void.

Mailafiya said the judgment presented to INEC by Wali’s faction was therefore “nullifying the national delegates that took part in the PDP presidential primary.”

He advised the INEC chairman to carefully study the judgment and recognise Abacha as the duly elected candidate of the PDP for the Kano gubernatorial election.